Passengers are seen amid dense crowds and chaotic scenes astatine Indira Gandhi International Airport aft stringent caller crew-rostering rules triggered wide delays and cancellations successful New Delhi, India, connected Dec. 5, 2025.
Amarjeet Kumar Singh | Anadolu | Getty Images
India's aviation watchdog connected Saturday warned hose IndiGo of regulatory enactment aft it canceled thousands of flights implicit the past week, stranding passengers and forcing authorities enactment to bounds a surge successful airfares caused by the crisis.
The country's biggest airline, IndiGo canceled the flights because of a shortage of pilots aft it failed to program adequately for new rules limiting however galore hours they work.
The civilian aviation watchdog sent the announcement to IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers, giving him 24 hours to respond and accidental wherefore regulatory enactment - which tin see penalties and suspension of officials - should not beryllium taken against the airline.
As the CEO "you person failed successful your work to guarantee timely arrangements for behaviour of reliable operations," said the notice, signed by Directorate General of Civil Aviation official, Ravinder Singh Jamwal.
The announcement is confidential but was reviewed by Reuters. IndiGo did not respond to a petition for remark connected the warning.
Earlier successful the day, India capped airfares, which person been driven higher by the summation successful request for flights operated by different carriers. IndiGo canceled different 385 flights connected Saturday, the 5th time of the crisis.
The authorities connected Friday announced exemptions from the caller rules for the bearer and laid connected further trains to assistance wide the backlog.
Delhi airdrome posted connected X connected Saturday that formation operations were steadily resuming. Cancellations nevertheless continued astatine galore airports.
The Civil Aviation Ministry said it would "continue to intimately show fare levels done real-time information and progressive coordination with airlines".
Fares were past capped during the COVID-19 pandemic successful 2020.
The Indian authorities said a one-way fare for a travel up to 500 kilometers cannot beryllium much than 7,500 rupees ($83), whereas for journeys betwixt 1,000 and 1,500 km - specified arsenic the New Delhi-Mumbai way - should beryllium capped astatine 15,000 rupees ($167).
That was good nether the 20,419 rupee ($227) terms advertised by Air India connected its website for a Delhi-Mumbai formation connected Saturday.
The formation cancellations are the biggest situation successful IndiGo's 20 years of operation. The hose has a much than 60% marketplace stock successful the world's most-populous state and has prided itself connected on-time show and affordable fares.
IndiGo has said it failed to program adequately for the November 1 deadline to instrumentality the stricter rules connected nighttime flying and play remainder for pilots. It lone suffered a roster situation this week arsenic December is the highest clip for holidays and weddings in India.
On Friday, much than 1,000 IndiGo flights were canceled. After the authorities announced the exemptions to the rules for IndiGo, the hose said it could instrumentality to mean operations betwixt December 10 and 15.
On Saturday, IndiGo canceled 124 flights successful Bengaluru, 109 successful Mumbai, 86 successful New Delhi and 66 successful Hyderabad, airdrome sources told Reuters.
Hundreds of passengers gathered extracurricular Bengaluru and Mumbai airports connected Saturday, immoderate unaware of the cancelations, according to Reuters witnesses.
Satish Konde had to drawback a connecting formation from Mumbai to the occidental metropolis of Nagpur and had checked successful earlier being told it was canceled.
"I americium waiting for my luggage to beryllium returned," helium said.
The caller aviator remainder and work rules capped the fig of nighttime landings to 2 from six and restricted the maximum fig of hours a aviator tin alert successful the nighttime to 10 hours.
For now, IndiGo has been exempted from some measures until Feb. 10.
The caller rules besides said that if a aviator takes idiosyncratic leave, that cannot beryllium counted successful calculating his play remainder play of 48 hours. That regularisation excessively has been enactment connected clasp for each airlines, fixed the IndiGo crisis.
That has upset aviator labour groups, who told the authorities that information indispensable not beryllium compromised to marque up for IndiGo's mediocre planning, the caput of the Federation of Indian Pilots, C.S. Randhawa, told Reuters.
The Airline Pilots Association of India objected connected Friday, calling the alleviation for IndiGo "selective dispensation". The norms "exist solely to safeguard quality life," the relation said successful a missive to the government.
Other large Indian airlines, including Air India and Akasa, person not had to cancel flights owed to the caller rules.
English (US) ·