Cost of Monopoly

Tens of thousands of Indians had a harrowing experience last week as air travel virtually came to a grinding halt across the country.

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IndiGo, the country’s largest domestic carrier which has managed to corner about 60% market share, suffered its worstever operational meltdown leaving thousands of flights cancelled nationwide. At the root of the crisis is IndiGo’s operating policy that made it India’s most profitable airline. For years, the airline maximised night flying and operated with razor-thin pilot buffers, relying ona “use-every-aircraft, use-every-crew” strategy that boosted profitability and aircraft utilisation. Under older duty-time rules, this approach worked. But with stricter pilot rest mandates, the system buckled. In January 2024, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) introduced tightened Flight Duty Time Limitations to combat rising concerns over pilot fatigue and to bring India closer to global safety norms. These rules raise pilots’ weekly rest from 36 to 48 hours, sharply reduce the number of nighttime landings per week, cap night-flying hours at 10, and prohibit more than two consecutive night duties. Collectively, these changes dramatically reduce the number of hours pilots can legally fly in a week. Although the revised rules were first notified in January 2024, and theoretically applied from 31 May, 2024, their implementation was subsequently staggered into a phased rollout from July 2025, with full compliance required by 1 November, 2025. Yet IndiGo, despite having all these months to respond, appears to have ignored the government orders, may be deliberately as some critics point out, to keep the operational scale of the transition at curren