India’s largest airline, IndiGo, plunged deeper into operational chaos on Thursday, cancelling more than 180 flights across major airports for the third day running. While the airline has blamed the cascading disruption on tougher pilot fatigue rules, adverse weather and technical snags, the chief of a major pilot association has alleged that a part of the crisis is “artificially created” by airlines to pressure the aviation regulator.
By Thursday morning, IndiGo had scrubbed at least 180 flights, stranding thousands of passengers at airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Pune. The cancellations on Wednesday had already crossed 150 flights.
The turmoil comes barely a month after India implemented revised flight duty time limitation (FDTL) norms aimed at improving pilot rest hours and strengthening aviation safety. The updated rules, which took effect on November 1, mandate longer rest periods and impose stricter limits on night-time flying.
According to the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP), IndiGo failed to adequately adjust its crew rosters in advance despite knowing the new rules were coming. The airline has acknowledged the regulatory changes as a contributing factor, attributing the situation to “stricter flight duty time limits”.
Shares of InterGlobe Aviation, IndiGo’s parent, fell 3.4 percent on Thursday and are down about 6 percent this week as investors digested the impact of the mass disruptions.
In a sharp escalation, Airline Pilots’ Association of India (ALPA India) president Sam Thomas told news agencies that airlines — particularly IndiGo — have a history of slowing down operations whenever regulations tighten.
“Anytime rules are not in favour of the airlines, they, like spoiled children, tend to delay flights and create disruptions to put pressure on the ministry or the DGCA,” Thomas alleged. He said the union has repeatedly warned the regulator about such tactics.
He argued that India remains the only major aviation market where “passenger convenience takes precedence over passenger safety”, a stance he said undermines the purpose of fatigue-management reforms.
The fatigue rules were announced last year and rolled out in phases. Thomas said airlines had “sufficient time” to prepare but failed to hire or train enough pilots.
“Despite DGCA bending backwards to implement the rules gradually, airlines now claim they don’t have enough pilots. This is a self-created problem,” he said, adding that staffing decisions were often driven by “commercial interests”.
He warned that disruptions may intensify as northern India enters peak fog season, further complicating scheduling and increasing fatigue risks.
Thomas also accused IndiGo of presenting misleading on-time performance figures by padding flight schedules.
“These are fictitious times. They declare a two-hour flight takes that long, then land 20 minutes early and call it ‘IndiGo Standard Time’. These are fraudulent practices,” he claimed. ALPA India has raised the issue with DGCA, which he said is now examining the matter.
IndiGo, which operates more than 2,000 domestic flights a day and commands over 60 percent of India’s aviation market, is under pressure to restore network stability quickly. The DGCA is reviewing the extent of cancellations, the airline’s roster changes and whether its staffing levels comply with the new rules.
Any prolonged instability at IndiGo is likely to ripple through India’s aviation ecosystem, affecting airport operations, connecting flights and passenger demand during the busy winter season.
Thomas expressed hope that the regulator would resist any pushback. “We hope the DGCA and the ministry will not succumb to pressure from low-cost airlines,” he said.
Passengers have been advised to check their revised flight schedules before heading to the airport, with further delays and cancellations likely in the coming days.