IndiGo flight disruptions prompt board review and DGCA checks

IndiGo Chairman Vikram Singh Mehta said the airline’s board would examine every aspect of the operational failures that led to thousands of flight cancellations across India earlier this month. In a recorded video message released on Wednesday, he apologised to passengers and rejected allegations that the crisis had been deliberately engineered or that safety had been compromised.

The disruption began in early December, when an unexpected sequence of events led to widespread cancellations and delays across IndiGo’s domestic network. The situation peaked around December 5, leaving thousands of travellers stranded at major airports, including New Delhi and Mumbai. Although the airline later said its operations had largely stabilised, several hundred flights were still cancelled in the days that followed.

“On December 3, an unexpected chain of events led to large-scale flight cancellations. Thousands of our passengers were left stranded,” Mr Mehta said. “I know how much distress this has caused. I want to say very simply and very clearly, we are sorry.”

He acknowledged that the airline had failed to meet passenger expectations, adding that some criticism of IndiGo’s handling of the crisis was justified. “The company has erred. There is no denying this,” he said, while promising transparency and corrective action.

According to Mr Mehta, the board has decided to involve external technical experts to work alongside management to identify the root causes of the disruption and to ensure that similar problems do not occur in the future. He said the airline owed explanations not only to customers, but also to the government, shareholders and employees.

The chairman strongly denied suggestions that the airline had intentionally created the crisis or bypassed safety requirements. He said IndiGo had complied with new Flight Duty Time Limitation rules, which govern pilot fatigue and working hours, when they came into effect.

“We operated under the new rules throughout. We did not attempt to bypass them, nor did we do anything that negatively impacted our unblemished track record of safety,” he said.

Mr Mehta attributed the disruption to a combination of internal pressures and unanticipated external factors. These included minor technical issues, seasonal schedule changes associated with the start of the winter aviation timetable, adverse weather, increased congestion in India’s airspace and the operational challenges of implementing updated crew rostering rules.

He noted that other Indian airlines were also exposed to similar external conditions, but conceded that at IndiGo, the cumulative effect pushed internal systems beyond their limits. He added that the board and its risk management committee had been monitoring the implementation of the new rules for several months and that a crisis management team set up by the board had been meeting daily.

Regulatory action has intensified alongside the airline’s internal review. India’s aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, has constituted an oversight team in response to the scale of passenger inconvenience caused by the disruptions.

The regulator has also ordered immediate on-site inspections at 11 domestic airports, including Nagpur, Jaipur, Bhopal, Cochin, Lucknow and Amritsar. Senior DGCA officials have been instructed to assess safety, operational preparedness, passenger facilitation and the airline’s responsiveness during the disruption.

An internal DGCA order directed officers to complete their inspections within two to three days and submit detailed reports shortly after. Officials are expected to examine flight delays and cancellations, terminal congestion, queue management, staffing levels, and the availability of help desks. Special attention has been requested for support arrangements for senior citizens, children and pregnant women.

In addition, the DGCA has summoned IndiGo Chief Executive Pieter Elbers to appear before the regulator and submit a comprehensive report on the recent operational failures, including detailed data on cancellations, crew availability and corrective measures.

The regulator has said that two members of its eight-person oversight team will be stationed at IndiGo’s corporate office to monitor issues such as on-time performance, refunds, compensation and baggage handling.

The issue has also reached India’s judiciary. The Delhi High Court has questioned the central government over whether timely regulatory intervention could have prevented the scale of disruption. During a hearing on a public interest litigation, the court noted that beyond inconvenience to passengers, the cancellations raised concerns about broader economic impact, including rising airfares on other airlines.

IndiGo has since submitted a revised winter flight schedule to the regulator after being instructed by the government to reduce its operations by 10 percent. The airline has been under scrutiny over crew shortages, which industry sources say were a key factor contributing to the breakdown in operations.

Context

IndiGo controls more than half of India’s domestic aviation market, making its operational stability critical to the country’s air transport system. The recent disruption has highlighted the challenges Indian airlines face as they balance rapid growth with stricter safety and fatigue regulations in an increasingly congested aviation environment.

While the government has temporarily put new crew rostering rules on hold to ease immediate pressure on airlines, regulators have signalled that safety compliance will remain non-negotiable. For IndiGo, the coming weeks are likely to determine how quickly passenger confidence can be restored and whether regulatory scrutiny results in longer-term operational changes across India’s aviation sector.