Centre orders 10% curtailment of IndiGo flights

AIRLINE SAYS OPERATIONS STABLE

- OUR CORRESPONDENT

The Civil Aviation Ministry has ordered IndiGo to scale back its planned winter flight operations by 10 per cent after a week of severe nationwide disruptions that led to thousands of cancellations and left passengers stranded across major airports.

The directive, announced on Tuesday, is aimed at restoring stability at India’s largest carrier, which struggled to manage tighter pilot rest regulations introduced in November and failed to anticipate the impact on its crew scheduling.

Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu posted a photograph on X showing IndiGo Chief Executive Officer Pieter Elbers seated with folded hands during a meeting at the ministry. In his accompanying message, the minister said the airline’s leadership had been called in to explain the continuing operational disorder. According to him, “the Ministry considers it necessary to curtail the overall Indigo routes, which will help in stabilising the airline’s operations and lead to reduced cancellations, A curtailment of 10 per cent has been ordered. While abiding by it, Indigo will continue to cover all its destinations as before.” The cut is twice the reduction mandated by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Monday.

IndiGo had been operating more than 2,200 flights a day under the winter schedule for 2025-26. The airline said on Tuesday that its network was showing “steady improvement” and that services had resumed across all 138 stations. It operated over 1,800 flights that day, a figure it expects to raise to almost 1,900 on Wednesday. ‘The carrier said it had “optimised our operations, and our on-time performance is also back to normal levels.”