The country’s largest airline IndiGo is going through a big crisis for the last few days. The company has had to cancel hundreds of flights in the last two days and many of the flights that did take off took off with a delay of hours. Due to this, long queues formed at the airport and passengers were also troubled. In such a situation, the same question was arising in everyone’s mind that how did such a big airline suddenly deteriorate?
280+ flights canceled in two days
About 130 IndiGo flights were canceled on Tuesday and more than 150 flights on Wednesday. On Tuesday, only 3 out of every 10 IndiGo flights flew on time, which is a big thing for an airline like IndiGo which is punctual.
DGCA’s new rule the root of the problem?
This entire crisis is actually related to the new pilot rest and duty-hour rules implemented by DGCA. Under the new system, pilots can make only a limited number of landings between 12 midnight and 6 am, and the weekend rest time has also been increased. DGCA implemented these rules despite the appeal of airlines, which suddenly increased the need for more pilots at IndiGo.
Technical glitches and bad weather
Indigo also cited reasons like technical glitches, bad weather and airport congestion, but many officials associated with the airline also told the other side of the story, which is poor planning. According to sources, IndiGo neither recruited enough new pilots nor expedited the process of making first officers captains. The result was that when the new rules came into effect, the extra pilot buffer with the airline became ‘zero’. Pilots were constantly re-scheduled, given long duty hours and many had to be sent from one city to another as deadheading passengers.
Slowness in recruitment-training
There has also been a lot of pressure on IndiGo’s flying capacity. New planes are not being received from Airbus on time and due to Pratt & Whitney engine problems, more than 40 planes are standing on the ground. The company added more than 20 rental aircraft, but the pilots flying them are not directly under IndiGo, which increases operational difficulties. Additionally, the company also slowed down the pace of recruitment and training of pilots to keep costs down. Indigo felt that their pilots were flying less, hence there was no need for new pilots. But many officials say that the work of pilots in small cities was less, whereas in big cities, pilots were already working under more pressure.
DGCA’s new rules for pilots
- Earlier, pilots used to get 36 hours of continuous rest every week, which has now been increased to 48 hours.
- Airline companies will have to submit reports every three months in which they will have to tell whether pilots complained of fatigue or not. Additionally, the airline will also have to explain what steps it took to reduce fatigue.
- Earlier the limit of night duty was considered to be till midnight, but now it has been increased from midnight to 6 am. Maximum flying time during night duty – 8 hours, maximum duty duration – 10 hours, continuous night duty – maximum 2 and night landing maximum – 2. These rules have come into effect from 1 November 2025.
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