IndiGo’s ongoing crisis continued on Thursday as the airline cancelled 60 flights at Bengaluru Airport—32 arrivals and 28 departures—amid heightened scrutiny from aviation regulator DGCA, a source said. The watchdog intensified monitoring after widespread service disruptions linked to IndiGo’s poor planning for the new pilot and crew duty-time norms.
DGCA has also summoned IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers to present a detailed report on the recent operational failures. A day earlier, the airline had cancelled 220 flights across Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai, with Delhi alone accounting for 137 cancellations.
IndiGo Chairman Vikram Mehta publicly addressed the crisis for the first time in 10 days, apologising and attributing the disruptions to a mix of internal and external factors, including technical issues, winter schedule adjustments, bad weather, system congestion and challenges tied to the updated crew roster rules. Notably, other airlines faced similar external pressures but managed to operate normally.
IndiGo’s pilot strength has dropped by 378 in the past nine months, despite earlier claims that new FDTL norms would require only a 3% increase in crew. DGCA has now deployed officials to IndiGo’s Gurgaon headquarters, supported by an oversight team of senior captains, to monitor flight cancellations, crew planning and shortages. The Federation of Indian Pilots blamed the crisis on IndiGo’s prolonged lean staffing strategy, hiring freezes and inadequate preparation despite a two-year transition period before FDTL implementation.
