IndiGo scaled up ops but pilot count dipped: Data

Pilot drop worsens turbulence

- Neha LM Tripathi

Weeks after the country's aviation regulator approved a 6% increase in flights for IndiGo, as part of the airline's winter schedule, the ministry of civil aviation said there would be a 10% reduction instead, a consequence of the inability of India's largest carrier to meet new flight rostering norms that saw it cancelling more than 5,500 flights in the first nine days of December.

Numbers presented in the Lok Sabha on December 8 highlight just why the airline was unable to meet the new flight duty timing limits, first mooted in January 2024, although the airlines got enough time to prepare with some of the norms coming into effect this July, and the rest on November 1. The numbers show a 7% reduction in the number of pilots at IndiGo between March and December.

Contrary to what its Chief Operating Officer (COO) Isidro Proqueras had said in the airline's submission to the aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in December last year that “the overall impact of implementing the proposed changes above would amount to an approximate 3% increase in crewing requirements", IndiGo has actually seen its number of pilots fall to 5,085 (December 8 reply) from 5,463 (according to a March 2025 reply), as per government data.

Air India saw the number of pilots on its rolls increase from 3,280 to 6,350 in this period; and SpiceJet, from 369 to 385.