Indigo Airlines has attributed its widespread flight cancellations and disruptions to the new Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) compliance, weather, congestion, and technical glitches.
The company had to cancel hundreds of flights across India from 2-4 December amid a massive shortage of crew.
The airline said that it would require time until February 10 2026, to fully stabilise operations.
The cancellations are primarily due to the the revised FDTL introduced by India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation DGCA rules, which went into full enforcement by November 1. The rules were created to combat pilot fatigue and enhance safety as air travel continues to grow.
Revised FDTL rules
The FDTL rules state how long pilots can be on duty, how many hours they can fly and and how many night shifts they can perform and the minimum rest they must receive.
The norms were implemented in two phases and fully enforced by November 1, 2025.
Some of the key changes made were:
Night duties are allowed only for two consecutive nights with a maximum of two night landings and no more are allowed weekly. Previously, pilots could do about six night landings in a week.
Basic flight time cannot exceed 8 hours for night operation.
During the daytime, it is capped at 10 hours of flight and 13 hours for two crew set-ups.
Extensions of 1.5-2 hours are allowed bu they will come with compensatory rest: twice the extension for up to 1 hour, or four times beyond that, with a 28-day cumulative cap of 4 extra flight hours and 8 duty hours.
A 48-hour weekly rest is given to pilots. Nights are defined as 00:00 to 06:00 instead of 00:05.
Mandatory roster adjustments and quarterly fatigue reporting
The rules were introduced to ensure aviation safety with reference to global aviation norms. Fatigue is considered a significant operational risk, especially for early morning departures and night landings.
The current chaos within Indigo was a direct result of the DTL rules clashing with the the rosters of the crew. The enforcement revealed gaps in the availability of pilots and crew.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled this week for 4 consecutive days, from December 2
The new 48-hour rest and night limit caused a pilot shortage during winter, when air travel is at one of its peaks due to poor planning.
The Airline Pilots’ Association of India (ALPA) accused IndiGo of “Arm-twisting" the DGCA by mass cancelling flights to push for relaxations in the new rules.
Airlines were underprepared despite notices and schedules of unviable flights. According to ALPA, the airlines had sufficient time to prepare, but adjusted the rosters too late.
They also said that the carrier had extra slorts and flifhts schedules ambitiously aiming to fill the winter demands without having suffient crew to operate the flights.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in a statement Thursday night that the disruptions were mainly due to miscalculations and planning shortcomings after a briefing from IndiGo officials.
Indigo has issued an apology and said that the cancellations were due to “acute constraints’