IndiGo’s operational meltdown has spiralled into one of the worst aviation crises India has seen in years, crippling air travel for days and triggering a high‑level probe from the Centre. Pieter Elbers’ video apology and “system reboot” plan came only after several days of chaos at major airports and mounting political pressure.
What exactly went wrong at IndiGo
IndiGo, which operates around 2,200–2,300 daily flights and carries more than half of India’s domestic passengers, began seeing large‑scale cancellations and delays from 2 December onward. Initially, the airline blamed a mix of “technology issues, airport congestion, adverse weather and operational requirements,” but data and regulator commentary point to three core problems:
- New pilot duty‑time rules (FDTL Phase‑2):
- The DGCA’s second‑phase Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) norms kicked in, increasing weekly rest for pilots from 36 to 48 hours and sharply restricting night landings (down from six to two per week).
- These rules, aimed at reducing fatigue‑related risk, effectively raised IndiGo’s pilot requirement, especially for its dense red‑eye network. IndiGo did not hire or train enough additional pilots in time, leading to a structural crew shortfall.
- Crew‑planning “strategic mistake”:
- Over 60% of IndiGo’s 1,232 cancellations in November were already tagged as “crew constraints,” a clear early warning.
- Sources quoted by ET and others say IndiGo underestimated the staffing impact of the new norms, over‑rostered available pilots, and relied on frequent reassignments and “deadheading” (flying pilots as passengers to another base), which made the system fragile.
- When a software update and winter‑schedule changes hit on top of this, the network tipped into a domino effect of missed rotations.
- Compounding shocks: tech glitches, weather, congestion:
By 3–4 December, hundreds of flights were being cancelled daily. On 5 December, Elbers confirmed that “well over 1,000” flights—more than half the schedule—had been cancelled, calling it the most severely impacted day and announcing a full system reboot.
Check what CEO said:
IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers says over 1000 flights cancelled today to achieve reboot.
— Jagriti Chandra (@jagritichandra) December 5, 2025
Tomorrow too there will be hundreds of cancellations.
Return to normalcy will take between December 10-15. pic.twitter.com/jxm9zWVlsW
Chaos on the ground: scenes from India’s airports
The operational collapse translated into extraordinary scenes at airports:
- At Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai, passengers reported waiting over 8–24 hours amid rolling delays, cancelled flights, and little real‑time information.
- Mumbai alone saw around 118 cancellations and widespread delays of 2–3 hours or more on one day; Bengaluru had 50+ departures and arrivals cancelled in a single 24‑hour window.
- Social media was flooded with images of passengers sleeping on floors, piles of unclaimed baggage, and long queues at empty IndiGo counters. In one viral clip from Delhi, a father pleaded for sanitary pads for his daughter after being stranded for hours with no basic support.
- Senior citizens, families with infants and medical travellers were among the worst hit; many who booked last‑minute tickets on other airlines paid exorbitant spot fares only to face further disruptions from congestion and slot reshuffling.
These scenes fuelled public anger, with many accusing IndiGo of poor crisis communication and inadequate on‑ground staffing. Passenger accounts consistently highlighted a lack of proactive rebooking, food and water arrangements, or clarity on refunds.
Government and DGCA intervention
As the crisis deepened, the civil aviation ministry and DGCA stepped in:
- Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu announced a high‑level inquiry to pinpoint accountability and said those responsible “must pay,” even as he promised a complete restoration of services within about three days.
- The DGCA provided temporary relaxation of the new FDTL norms for IndiGo, granting limited relief on weekly rest and night‑landing caps until February 2026 to help the airline stabilise its rosters.
- The regulator also sought detailed explanations on planning lapses, aircraft maintenance and recurrence of defects, noting that repeated disruptions of this magnitude raise systemic safety and compliance questions.
Elbers, in his message, outlined three response lines: aggressive customer communication (social and email updates, scaled‑up call centres), prioritising stranded passengers from major hubs to travel the same day, and proactive cancellations to realign planes and crews for a “fresh start” the next morning. He said IndiGo expects cancellations to fall below 1,000 the following day and projected a return to “full, normal” operations between 10 and 15 December.
Why this episode is a big deal for Indian aviation
IndiGo controls more than 60% of India’s domestic traffic and is the backbone carrier for many routes. When such a player suffers a systemic outage:
- The impact cascades to the entire network—airport slots, ATC flows, ground‑handling and even other airlines’ schedules are disrupted as congestion builds.
- It exposes fragilities in how quickly Indian carriers can adapt to stricter safety and fatigue norms, especially when fleet induction is hampered by grounded aircraft (IndiGo currently has around 40–50 planes on ground due to Pratt & Whitney engine issues).
- It raises fundamental questions about crisis playbooks: whether airlines should be allowed to expand capacity aggressively without demonstrated staffing buffers, and how passenger‑rights enforcement (refunds, compensation, care obligations) should be tightened.
For IndiGo, a brand built on punctuality and reliability, this week’s chaos is a serious trust shock. Elbers has promised not just to “restore your trust and belief, but strengthen it further over time”. Whether that happens will depend on how quickly the airline fixes its rostering architecture, rebuilds contingency buffers and redeploys staff at the front line—before the next regulatory or operational stress test hits Indian skies.
Read this: Ronaldo Becomes Investor and a Global Partner in Perplexity. What This Means for the AI Giant
