Why Has Indigo Come to a Standstill? What Happens Next? The Crisis Is Far From Over

India’s busiest airline — Indigo — is currently passing through a phase of severe turbulence. In the past few days, hundreds of Indigo flights have been cancelled, delayed, or rescheduled. As a result, chaos has erupted at major airports across the country, passengers are turning red with anger, and frustration is pouring out on Indigo staff.

This unexpected crisis has brought aviation safety, staffing patterns, and regulatory compliance into the spotlight. However, Indigo’s crisis is not the outcome of a single cause but a mixture of many factors. These include the new crew-duty regulations (Flight Duty Time Limitation), staff shortages, technical glitches, weather disruptions, and fleet-related issues — all of which together worsened the situation.

In fact, Indigo’s flight performance had already begun to decline a few weeks earlier when several aircraft were grounded. But once things went out of control, the airline had no option left except to cancel hundreds of flights.

Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL)

The biggest reason behind this crisis is the newly implemented Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) regulation. These rules determine the number of hours pilots and crew members can legally work. The DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) enforced these new norms fully from 1 November 2025.

Under the new rules, the weekly rest period has been increased from 36 hours to 48 hours. The definition of night duty has been expanded — it is now counted from midnight to 6 AM. The number of night landings permitted for a pilot per week has been reduced from six to two. Along with this, strict limits have been placed on the maximum flight duty period.

A low-cost airline like Indigo struggled immensely under these new changes. Its staffing and roster planning were built on maximum utilization of pilots. Due to the new norms, the same number of flights now required a much larger number of pilots and crew, and the airline failed to meet this requirement.

Further complicating the situation, Indigo added more flights to its winter schedule even though it already had a shortage of crew. This widened the gap between operational demand and staff availability.

Technical glitches, winter congestion, weather issues, and other external factors only added fuel to the fire.

Why Has Indigo Been Affected the Most?

Indigo operates an extremely large network. The airline runs more than 2,200 domestic and international flights every day — almost double that of many competitors. In terms of low-cost operations and network scale, Indigo has practically created a monopoly in India’s aviation space.

Its business model relies heavily on squeezing maximum efficiency from every process — quick landings, quick servicing and cleaning, and quick takeoffs. The airline depends heavily on night operations and a very tight flight schedule. Thus, the FDTL rule changes hit Indigo the hardest.

Over the years, Indigo continued to operate with minimal staffing, avoided large-scale pilot hiring, did not expand training capacities, kept salaries frozen, and maintained a very thin backup crew. Because of this, even if one crew member became unavailable, there was no replacement available to fill the slot.

Temporary Relief: DGCA Offers Relaxation

Considering the crisis, passenger inconvenience, and the airline’s tarnished reputation, the DGCA was compelled to intervene. On 5 December, the regulator granted Indigo a one-time exemption from the night-duty limit and removed the restriction that prevented airlines from counting leave days as part of “weekly off”.

Admitting the Mistake — But Crisis Still Not Over

Indigo has now admitted that it failed to correctly assess the impact of the new FDTL regulations and that its planning was highly inadequate. The airline has assured that operations will become fully stable by 10 February 2026.

For now, the coming weeks may remain challenging for passengers. Even though the night-duty relief may provide temporary breathing space, the backlog, rebooking issues, and refund delays are likely to continue.

But this crisis has also raised fundamental questions about the structure of India’s aviation ecosystem. Experts warn that an overdependence on a single airline — especially one operating on a low-cost, high-frequency model — exposes the entire country to systemic risk. This crisis highlights the real danger of a “monopoly model”.

⸻

SEO Elements

Keywords:

Indigo crisis, Indigo flight cancellations, FDTL rules India, pilot duty hours India, DGCA relaxation Indigo, Indigo staff shortage, India aviation crisis, Indigo delays 2025, low-cost airline issues, Neelmani Lal analysis, Newstrack Network

Meta Description:

A detailed analysis of why Indigo, India’s busiest airline, has come to a standstill. The article explains how new FDTL rules, staffing shortages, technical issues, and operational mismanagement triggered a nationwide aviation crisis. Includes expert insights and future implications.

URL Slug:

indigo-crisis-analysis-fdtl-rules-dgca-relief-newstrack-network