A special panel constituted by the aviation regulator has submitted a confidential report to the Ministry of Civil Aviation on the operational crisis at IndiGo, news agency ANI reported. The submission comes weeks after widespread IndiGo flight disruptions hit passengers across India.
According to the ministry, the eight-member committee, headed by Joint Director General Sanjay K Bramhane, submitted its findings to the Ministry of Civil Aviation on Friday evening. “The eight-member committee has submitted its report this evening. The report is confidential,” ANI quoted ministry officials as saying.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation had set up the special monitoring team on December 10 after IndiGo continued to face large-scale cancellations, delays and congestion at major airports. The regulator moved to strengthen oversight as operational disruptions persisted for several days, affecting thousands of passengers nationwide.
Week of disruptions
India’s largest airline came under intense pressure due to crew shortages and schedule imbalances, leading to massive last-minute flight cancellations. The impact was most visible at metro airports, where passengers faced long queues, sudden changes to flight schedules and a spike in fares on alternative services.
Last week, a senior official told PTI that authorities would take “elaborate and corrective actions” after examining the probe panel’s findings into the recent disruptions.
What led to the IndiGo crisis?
During the preliminary inquiry, IndiGo informed the DGCA that the cancellations were the result of a “compounding effect” of multiple factors. These included technical glitches, changes linked to the winter schedule, adverse weather conditions, rising air-traffic congestion and the implementation of stricter crew rostering rules under revised flight-duty-time limitation norms, known as FDTL Phase II.
The airline also said it had deliberately cancelled a significant number of flights from December 5 to reset its network. It said that this step was aimed at repositioning crew and aircraft, easing congestion and helping stranded passengers recover their journeys.
The roots of the crisis lie in the rollout of FDTL Phase II earlier this year. The new regulations increased mandatory rest periods for pilots and placed tighter limits on night landings and duty hours. According to the regulator, IndiGo failed to adequately align its crew planning, training and rostering systems with the revised norms, despite repeated directions and advance notice.
As a result, the airline struggled to accurately forecast crew availability, leading to cancellations that reportedly peaked at 170 to 200 flights a day.
Following the disruptions, the DGCA convened a review meeting with IndiGo, during which the airline acknowledged it had “failed to anticipate the actual crew requirement” under the new norms. The regulator also issued a show-cause notice to IndiGo’s top management, signed by its CEO and COO, seeking a detailed root-cause analysis.
Additionally, the DGCA ordered a 5% cut in IndiGo’s winter schedule, removing around 100 to 110 daily flights. The regulator warned that further reductions could follow if operational performance does not stabilise in the coming weeks.