NEW DELHI: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has cut IndiGo’s flights by 5%. At about 2,300 daily flights, it means a reduction of 115 flights. “The airline has been informed of this decision. The flights to be cut are being worked out so as not to impact connectivity on the routes where these cuts take place,” said sources. A decision on a further 5% cut may be taken in coming days depending on the level of daily flights at which the airline is able to operate as per schedule.
IndiGo had an approved summer schedule of 14,158 weekly domestic flights. In the winter schedule effective October 26, its daily domestic flights were increased by 6% to 15,014. The new flight duty time limitation (FDTL) that increased pilot requirement was coming into effect from November 1. On the one hand IndiGo did not gear up for that and on the other, its daily flights increased 6%. So November saw modest cancellations but the mismatch snowballed into a major crisis in the first week of Dec with hundreds of flights being cancelled daily. Follow live updates: DGCA to cut 5% of IndiGo’s slots, shall be given to other airlinesAir India and AI Express, on the other hand, saw their weekly domestic schedule being reduced by 0.8% and 6%, respectively from summer to winter schedule. India’s second biggest airline group saw its weekly summer domestic flights 7,685 reduce to overall by 3% to 7,448 in winter. Akasa also saw its weekly winter domestic schedule reduce by 5.7% from 1,089 to 1,027. SpiceJet, which is ramping up operations, saw an increase of over 26% with the number increasing from 1,240 to 1,568.Now questions are being asked of aviation authorities why did they permit IndiGo more flights without checking its crew availability under the new FDTL requirement — that came into effect on November 1 and have now been put on hold for IndiGo Airbus A320 fleet till Feb 10, 2026. Aviation ministry says exemplary action will be taken against the airline.Also read: Civil aviation minister vows ‘very, very strict action’ against IndiGoOn its part, IndiGo has attributed the disruption to a “compounding effect of multiple factors which coincided in lesser or greater measure” in an “unfortunate and unforeseeable confluence.” These are: Minor technical glitches; schedule changes linked to the start of the winter season; adverse weather conditions increased congestion in the aviation system, andiImplementation of and operation under the updated crew rostering rules (FDTL phase II) that came into force on November 1, 2025.
