Mumbai/New Delhi, December 4, 2025 – India's largest carrier IndiGo plunged into chaos Wednesday and Thursday, cancelling over 1,200 flights across the country and stranding thousands of passengers at major airports including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.
The unprecedented disruption, affecting more than 300 flights in the past 48 hours alone, stems from a perfect storm of challenges: newly implemented flight duty time limitations (FDTL), acute pilot and cabin crew shortages, and what CEO Pieter Elbers described as an "accumulation of issues" in an internal email to staff.
New safety regulations that came into effect on November 1 have sharply reduced the number of hours pilots can fly while increasing mandatory rest requirements. IndiGo, operating on a tight roster with minimal downtime, has been hit particularly hard by these stricter duty-time limits.
On December 4, at least 191 flights were cancelled across Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Hyderabad, with Bengaluru airport reporting 73 IndiGo cancellations alone. The cascading effect has led to massive delays, some extending up to 10 hours, and caused airfares to skyrocket – with Delhi-Bengaluru economy tickets reaching Rs 43,000 for certain dates.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has summoned IndiGo's top management and announced it will closely monitor airfares to prevent price gouging. Aviation authorities have acknowledged that while the new regulations aim to improve safety standards, IndiGo's scale of operations and tight crew scheduling have magnified their impact.
IndiGo has initiated "calibrated adjustments" to its schedules for the coming weeks, though passengers continue to face uncertainty. The airline has apologized for the inconvenience, admitting it "failed to deliver the expected services" to customers.
