The Union government took a tougher stand against IndiGo on Thursday, with civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu blaming the airline’s “gross mismanagement” and problems in its crew rostering system for the massive scheduling crisis that has troubled millions of passengers this month.
His remarks came on the same day IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers appeared before the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). He has also been asked to return today on Friday to face a four-member committee set up by the regulator.
“The crisis was a result of gross mismanagement by IndiGo only. There were some issues with their internal crew rostering system, which could have been avoided in compliance with the new norms under the Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) guidelines, which unfortunately did not happen,” Naidu said during the Agenda AajTak programme.
Adding to it the minister said, “This is the reason why we saw the domino effect of flight cancellations on December 3 and 4”.
Ministry conducts its own inquiry
Calling the situation “shocking”, Naidu said the ministry was not depending on the airline’s explanations and was carrying out its own inquiry through the DGCA. “Why were IndiGo’s pilots on a freeze for the past six months? Six months, no pilot hiring,” he said, according to the India Today transcript.
Naidu has earlier said that the flight disruptions were caused by IndiGo miscalculating how many pilots it needed under the new Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) rules, which came into effect in November 2025.
When asked whether the government or the DGCA had ignored the warning signs in the weeks before the crisis, he explained, “The new FDTL norms became applicable on November 1. We had been in constant touch with the airline over the few usual cancellations. For the next few days, there was a phase when there were no cancellations at all.”
Naidu, who has already ordered an inquiry into the crisis and has promised to hold the responsible party accountable, also said that his ministry held an important meeting with IndiGo on December 1 to check if they had any concerns about the new rules. According to him, “They never mentioned that they had any issue at all”.
Flight disruptions continue
Even after 10 days of cancelled flights, stranded travellers and airports overflowing with misplaced baggage, disruptions continued on Thursday. IndiGo cancelled 200 flights that were planned in advance and 60 more on the same day, despite earlier assurances from both the airline and the government that the worst was over.
Based on data shared in Parliament, IndiGo’s pilot strength dropped by 7% between March and December, even though the airline planned to operate 6% more flights in the winter schedule compared to the summer, according to a report by Hindustan Times.
For years, IndiGo – which controls 65% of India’s domestic aviation market – has relied on tight schedules and heavy night-time flying. But this business model fell apart when new safety rules increased the mandatory weekly rest time for pilots. The crisis became visible on December 2, when the airline cancelled more than 100 of its roughly 2,300 flights. Between December 2 and 9, the carrier cancelled an estimated 5,500 flights and delayed many others. Most cancellations were on domestic routes, while international operations were affected far less.
