India’s largest airline, IndiGo, is facing the worst crisis in its 20-year history, with at least 2,000 flights canceled since December 2.
IndiGo, which has about 65% market share, canceled more than 1,000 flights on Friday, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at major airports across India.
Other airlines raised their prices on popular routes amid the chaos, prompting the government to halt price increases to “ensure that citizens who urgently need to travel – including seniors, students and patients – are not subject to financial hardship.”
Videos emerged of the angry mob attacking ground staff, breaking counters, abusing and throwing objects at tired airline staff.
Social media platforms are flooded with pictures of piles of luggage at airports.
This chaos coincides with the peak wedding season in India, during which families often plan lavish celebrations throughout the day.
“I was supposed to attend my sister’s wedding, but after waiting for hours and getting canceled repeatedly, it feels like everything is going to waste,” Pratik Guha, a businessman, told DW as he exited the airport 13 hours later.
“Fellow passengers were crying,” Manjeet Arora, a passenger from Delhi, told DW. “It’s not just an inconvenience, it’s a nightmare.”
What is the cause of the crisis?
The cancellation was due to a shortage of pilots, which IndiGo admitted was a result of its failure to prepare in time for the stringent aviation regulations.
The new rules – designed to combat pilot fatigue – increased the mandatory weekly rest period from 36 to 48 hours and reduced the number of night landings allowed from six to two.
Despite almost two years’ notice since the rules were announced in January 2024, IndiGo’s understaffed model and heavy reliance on night flights left virtually no buffer when strict crew-rest requirements were implemented.
Other airlines like Air India and Akasa Air adopted similar rules without any major disruption.
Jitendra Bhargava, former executive director of Air India, described the crisis as “an ugly chapter in Indian aviation history”, and sharply criticized IndiGo’s handling of the chaos.
“When the shortage of pilots became apparent, the airline should have cut the schedule and made it public, rather than allowing chaos to spread,” Bhargava said. He said IndiGo “should be punished financially.”
six days of serious disruption
“This crisis stems from IndiGo’s own mismanagement rather than just regulatory shortcomings,” Bhargava told DW. “The blame lies on the airline’s operational planning and communications failures.”
IndiGo’s on-time performance – which was a strong 84% in October – dropped to as low as 35% during the peak of the crisis, underscoring the scale of the operational failure.
IndiGo CEO Peter Elbers issued a formal apology, admitting that 5 December was the “most severely affected day” in terms of cancellations.
“On behalf of IndiGo, I would like to express our sincere apologies for the great inconvenience caused to many of our customers,” Albers said.
However, the airline faced intense government scrutiny and public backlash due to prolonged disruptions and service failures.
Regulator pulls up Indigo over mismanagement
The Government of India ordered IndiGo to “trace and distribute all luggage lost from passengers due to the disruption within 48 hours.”
India’s aviation watchdog issued a warning notice to IndiGo CEO Albers, seeking an explanation within 24 hours as to why enforcement action should not be initiated.
“As the CEO, you have failed in your duty to ensure timely arrangements for conducting reliable operations,” the notice from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said.
Former Air Force commercial pilot Captain Sandeep Bansal said the chaos in air travel was caused by a change of just a few hours in the new rules, known as Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL).
“Since IndiGo utilizes pilots to maximum capacity, they could not afford to cut the pilots’ duty time by a few hours and increase their rest time,” Bansal told DW.
“And now IndiGo has asked for a two-month extension for the old FDTL scheme to get its act together – something they could not do in the last six months,” Bansal said.
“It also highlights India’s inadequate preparedness for scaling up, encouraging diverse fleets, pilot training investments and competition to maintain investor confidence and global ambitions.”
Is India ready for aviation leadership?
India, with its population of over 1.4 billion, is home to the world’s fastest growing air passenger market and is poised to become the world’s third largest aviation market after China and the United States.
According to the country’s Civil Aviation Ministry, domestic air passenger traffic is expected to double in the next six years to reach 300 million by the end of 2030.
According to industry body, International Air Transport Association (IATA), India is projected to become the third largest by 2026.
However, this crisis sends a troubling signal about the country’s preparedness for aviation leadership as it highlights a growth-at-all-cost mentality that prioritizes expansion over operational flexibility.
“The demand is growing faster than the country can build the human capital, operational systems and regulatory culture to support it,” said Umesh Kamath, managing director of Dravid Aviation Services.
“This appears to be poor planning by IndiGo to maximize holiday profits along with questionable regulatory oversight,” Kamath told DW.
“For a market looking to take on China and the US, the collapse of your largest carrier under basic security compliance is a red flag.”
Kapil Kaul, CEO and director of CAPA India, a leading New Delhi-based aviation research and advisory firm, told DW that “given the scale of India’s aviation growth… some impact across the industry due to this growth is inevitable,” adding that he expects the aviation industry “to be well prepared to maintain order.”
Edited by: Keith Walker