The hundreds of IndiGo flight cancellations and delays wasn’t triggered by one factor but is a consequence of a domino effect that has bought India’s largest airline to its knees.
Disruptions triggered by the Airbus A320 issues snowballed into a chaos after a court upheld implementation of the so-called Flight Duty Time Limitations, which allow pilots and crew to get enough rest in between flight operations. First introduced in January 2024 but not implemented since then, airlines were hoping for another extension from the effective date of 1 November 2025.
That, however, wasn’t to be.
(Update: At last count, more than 300 IndiGo flights were cancelled across major airports in India on Thursday. More than 150 were cancelled on Wednesday.)
What are the Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) rules?
The Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) rules, implemented by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to combat pilot and crew fatigue, have led to IndiGo flight cancellations due to the following key constraints:
1. Increased weekly rest period: The mandatory weekly rest period for flight crew has been extended from 36 hours to 48 consecutive hours. This significantly reduces the available time for crew rostering.
2. Stricter Night Operation Limits: The definition of “night duty” has been extended to cover the period from 00:00 to 06:00 hours (it was previously 00:00 to 05:00 hours).
- The maximum number of permitted night landings has been sharply reduced from six to two per week for a pilot.
- Pilots are also restricted to a maximum of two consecutive night duties.
3. Maximum flight time reduction (for night operations): Maximum flight time is capped at 8 hours per day for operations encroaching upon the night period (00:00 to 06:00), with a maximum duty period of 10 hours.
These stricter rules reduce the total flying hours and number of night flights a crew member can operate, placing a significant strain on an airline like IndiGo, which has a high-frequency, high-utilisation model, especially for late-night and early-morning “red-eye” services.
The resulting pilot shortage under the new limitations is cited as a major reason for the IndiGo flight cancellations and delays.
IndiGo had reduced its domestic flights between July and September. More flights were added on 1 October and then on 26 Ocotber for winter schedule.
Airbus A320 Software Glitch
To be sure, IndiGo was already on the edge when the Airbus A320 software advisory came into picture. The emergency update led to delays of flights but the airline avoided any cancellations over the weekend.
But there were delays, which meant that several flights landed or took off after midnight. Now, with FDTL rules in effect, a large number of flight crew took their mandated break from operations—making them unavailable for flights starting on Monday.
Essentially, the flight delays over the weekend due to the Airbus A320 glitch resulted in cancellations during the week due to the FDTL rules in effect. The system just collapsed, like dominoes.
The situation was simply excerbated due to higher number of flights during the winter schedule, which kicked in on 26 October.
What could IndiGo have done?
It should’ve seen it coming.
In the days leading leading up to the collapse, IndiGo was recording less than 50% on-time performance. Passengers were reporting cancellations and delays. Even the ground staff was announcing that pilots were unavailable to fly the aircraft due to the FDTL rules.
Anticipating pilot shortages should’ve been easy, as simple as a click on the airline’s IT systems, but that seems to have not happened. Accountability has to lie with someone within the airline, while corrective actions need to be taken at the same time to ensure that operations don’t stall altogether.
IndiGo Flight Status — What Next?
The only solace that IndiGo has is its market share—passengers don’t have an option but to fly IndiGo or Air India.
The focus should also be on the DGCA for approving additional flights during the Winter Schedule, when airlines were yet to streamline operations as per the FDTL rules.
While many think that the IndiGo flight delays and cancellations were stage managed, a listed company would hardly want to hurt its reputation. Instead, it looks like a systematic failure. A rollback of the FDTL rules is hardly a solution either.
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Will IndiGo go the 2019 way of flight cancellations? Only time will tell. Till then, the airline has to deal with over 25 flight cancellations on a daily basis.