Grounded by the rulebook

BLOG 34/2025 DATED 6TH DECEMBER 2025

Indian Airline Industry has expanded with a considerable high rate, with airports now available at non metro places as well. We can find flights from and to all major centres in the country. On the flip side we have also seen airlines closing down and being thrown out of the competition. The industry passed out of the chaos and finally, we saw a few survivals in this market and INDIGO is probably the leader having its flights almost everywhere. Here comes November-December 2025 and a new chaos, this time it is flight cancellations in bulk leaving commuters confused, raged, angered and sometimes at irreparable loss. The CEO of Indigo was kind enough when he extended an apology for all this, just apology, and promised to streamline things very soon. While blame game has begun, what has come forward is that the disruptions are due to the implementation of the fresh FDTL guidelines of DGCA that are now applicable.

FDTL stands for Flying Duty Time Limitation. These guidelines are implemented worldwide and they define the fly time and rest time for the pilots as a part of broad Risk Management framework. Safe Fly Aviation, an organisation in private aviation writes “International standards for pilot duty limitations aren’t arbitrary—they’re rooted in decades of fatigue science and accident investigation data. Research consistently shows that pilot fatigue accounts for approximately 15-20% of aviation incidents worldwide, making robust FDTL regulations essential for maintaining the highest safety standards” Further, Indian Aviation Industry is one of the larger aviation industries in the world and is expected to keep pace with the Risk Management standard practices followed worldwide. Considering the above, Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) rolled out FDTL guidelines in Feb 2024 and advised the airlines accordingly. As per this, among other reforms, pilots rest time has been enhanced from 36 consecutive hours a week to 48 consecutive hours a week, Night duty definition is also expanded from (2.00h to 6.00h) to (00.00h to 6.00h).

Implementation & Chaos:

While these rules were floated in February 2024 and airlines were advised to adapt to this, it was decided to implement it in phased manner i.e in July 2025 and in November/December 2025. The phased manner implementation was decided to provide some breathing time to the airlines and reallocate their resources for the smooth transition. The guidelines require many operational changes in airlines schedules and also deployment of a greater number of pilots to comply with the fresh Risk and Safety laws.

Though July went on smoothly, November changes could not be implemented smoothly. Airlines were still not in readiness to implement the fresh rules and that primarily caused mass scale cancellation of flights. Indigo alone cancelled over 1000 flights in first 5 days of December. No plan was in place and it seems that the airline was in no readiness to implement the rules decided by DGCA almost 2 years ago. Captain Thomas, President of APAI (Air Passenger Association of India) pointed out in an interview with ‘News Today’ that these shortcomings were pointed out to the management of Indigo many times. CEO of Indigo apologised and promised full refund of ticket amount.

Not only this, other airlines viz Air India, Akasa, SpiceJet etc considering this as market opportunity raised the air fare exponentially, again leaving the commuters gasping. This vulture type approach of the industry is the norm in aviation industry and is called market linked pricing. A ticket of 6-7 thousand increasing to 40,000+.

Solution:

Ministry of Civil Aviation has suspended new FDTL rules till February 10 and airlines got a breathing space to comply with the guidelines. This will allow the airlines including Indigo to streamline functions and to comply with the norms within 2 months.

Process flaws:

• DGCA took a right call in modernising the FDTL rules and making it at par with global standards still while they announced it in 2024 Feb, was there no review of the readiness of airlines?
• Why Ministry of Civil Aviation has not ensured that the airlines are not lethargic in implementing the new guidelines that are to ensure the safety of the passengers?
• What was the role of the Board of Directors of Indigo and specially the role of Independent Directors whose sole job is to ensure that the organisation remain regulatory compliant while remaining efficient?

• What was the role of Assurance Function i.e Risk, Compliance and Audit within Indigo which is a renowned name in Indian Aviation Industry and a listed entity?

• If there was actually a shortage of pilots, what were the efforts that Management has taken?

• Should there not be a limit to increase the pricing specially in an emergent situation like this?

These questions need to be addressed, as these disruptions cause reputational damage not only to the organisation but to nation as a whole. Further, other industries also should take immediate cognisance of the entire case and must be ready to adapt to the global standards smoothly. More importantly, Government and regulators should note that disruptions are not used by the market players as an income opportunity by adopting exploitative pricing.