NEW DELHI: There will be fewer domestic flights this winter as the civil aviation ministry Tuesday evening decided to slash IndiGo's schedule at least by 10% - doubling it from the 5% cut ordered earlier in the day by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
This is govt's first punitive action after India's largest domestic carrier saw operations grind to a near halt last week over failure to comply with new flying norms for crew.
The airline operated over 2,200 daily flights in the summer schedule and the govt decision will translate to a minimum 216 fewer flights. The cuts will remain under periodic review for further necessary action, govt said.
"The ministry considers it necessary to curtail the overall IndiGo routes, which will help stabilise its operations and reduces cancellations. A curtailment of 10% has been ordered. While abiding by it, IndiGo will continue to cover all its destinations," said aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu, facing flak for the way the crisis was handled last week.
IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers "was summoned (Tuesday) to provide an update... passengers faced severe inconvenience due to IndiGo's mismanagement of crew rosters, flight schedules and inadequate communication.... an inquiry and necessary actions are underway," Naidu posted on X.
Modify showcause, issue fresh notice to IndiGo: Govt to DGCA
Earlier in the day, Directorate General of Civil Aviation's (DGCA) 5% cut order had stated the airline has "not demonstrated an ability to operate" its previously approved winter schedule of 15,014 weekly departures "efficiently". The airline was directed to reduce operations "across sectors, especially on high-demand, high-frequency flights, and to avoid single-flight operations on a sector by IndiGo".
Doubling that hours later, civil aviation ministry said the airline "has not been able to adequately manage its operational resources, including aircraft and pilot crew". It asked DGCA to modify its show-cause notice and issue a fresh notice to IndiGo.
IndiGo's summer schedule was for operating 14,158 weekly domestic flights which was increased 6% in the winter schedule starting Oct 26. This translated to the airline having an approval to operate 64,346 domestic flights in Nov. "As per operational data submitted by IndiGo, it (actually operated) 59,438 flights during Nov 2025, with 951 flight cancellations recorded during the month," the DGCA notice issued to the airline about flight cuts on Monday night says.
The regulator had increased IndiGo's winter flights based on an estimated higher aircraft availability at 403 against 351 this summer. "However, it has been observed that the airline could operate only 339 aircraft in Oct 2025 and 344 aircraft in Nov 2025... IndiGo increased its departures by 9.66% in comparison to winter schedule 2024 and by 6% in relation to summer schedule 2025," DGCA's Tuesday notice says.
In a statement IndiGo said: "...reinstated our operations across our network... all flights published on our website are scheduled to operate with an adjusted network... nearly all bags stuck at airports have been delivered to our customers and the teams are working on delivering the remaining at the earliest. (Tuesday) we are operating over 1,800 flights, connecting all 138 stations in our network, and plan to fly nearly 1,900 flights (on Wednesday)... our on-time performance is also back to normal levels."
The problem essentially happened as the new flight duty time limitation (FDTL) that increased pilot requirements came into effect from Nov 1. On the one hand IndiGo did not gear up for that and on the other, its daily flights increased 6%.
Air India and AI Express, on the other hand, saw their weekly domestic schedule being reduced by 0.8% and 6%, respectively from summer to winter schedule. India's second biggest airline group saw its weekly summer domestic flights at 7,685 reduce overall by 3% to 7,448 in winter. Akasa also saw its weekly winter domestic schedule reduce by 5.7% from 1,089 to 1,027. SpiceJet, which is ramping up operations, saw an increase of over 26% with the number increasing from 1,240 to 1,568.
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