Indigo. on Tuesday said it has an adequate pool of pilots and crew to ensure stable operations as the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s temporary relaxations from the revised flight duty time limitation (FDTL) norms came to an end.
The statement comes after the airline faced severe operational disruptions in early December, when a combination of crew shortages, system and planning gaps and management deficiencies led to widespread cancellations and delays. Following an investigation, the aviation regulator curtailed IndiGo’s winter schedule by 10% and granted limited relaxations from the revised FDTL norms until February 10 to help stabilise operations.
“As assured to the regulatory authorities earlier, we are maintaining an optimum pool of employees, including pilots, to ensure stable operations across our network,” an airline spokesperson said, adding that the revised duty norms have already been integrated into crew rosters and planning.
Indigo flight cancellations
Between December 3 and 5 alone, IndiGo cancelled 2,507 flights and delayed another 1,852, impacting over 300,000 passengers across airports in the country. The airline operates around 2,200 flights daily and saw its domestic market share decline to 59.6% in December from 63.6% in November, reflecting the scale of the disruption.
The regulator had attributed the crisis to over-optimisation of operations, inadequate regulatory preparedness on the airline’s part, deficiencies in system software support and shortcomings in management structure and operational control.
In addition to cutting capacity, the DGCA imposed penalties totalling Rs 22.2 crore, directed the airline to furnish a Rs 50-crore bank guarantee to ensure compliance with long-term corrective measures, and issued warnings to senior management.
What did DGCA say?
On January 20, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said sustained regulatory oversight and corrective steps had helped stabilise IndiGo’s operations, and that the airline now had sufficient pilots to comply with the revised FDTL norms without disruption. Citing submissions from the carrier, the regulator said IndiGo had 2,400 pilots in command against a requirement of 2,280, and 2,240 first officers against a requirement of 2,050.
Data shared by the regulator also showed that IndiGo added 44 Airbus-certified pilots, including 21 captains and 23 first officers, after coming under scrutiny in December, taking its Airbus fleet strength to 2,378 captains and 2,217 first officers as of early January.
Following the December episode, the regulator also flagged deficiencies in oversight and planning, directed the removal of a senior vice-president from operational responsibilities and sought a compliance report from the airline. Warnings were issued to CEO Pieter Elbers and other senior executives.
IndiGo said it remains fully compliant with applicable duty time norms and expects operations to remain stable as the relaxations lapse.