How India’s top airline unravelled in quest for higher profits

It was the straw that broke the highly optimised camel's back.

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Some time in the evening of Dec 2, three days before India’s largest airline would lose control of its operations in one of the country’s worst aviation disruptions, IndiGo executives noticed that a technology glitch in its check-in system was delaying late-night flights.

This, in turn, was affecting a pilot duty roster recently fine-tuned to incorporate new government rules mandating longer rest hours and fewer night landings.

Compounded by winter flight schedule changes, air congestion and adverse weather, the maths was suddenly not adding up for the low-cost airline whose relentless optimisation allowed it to turn a profit within three years of inception and capture nearly 66 per cent of India’s aviation market.

The resource-efficient instincts baked into IndiGo’s DNA had led to a severe underestimation of redundancies needed to accommodate the new pilot rest rules, despite carriers having had nearly two years to prepare since the guidance was announced in January 2024.

Scheduling changes began to snowball: IndiGo cancelled at least 70 flights on Dec 3, then 300 on Dec 4 and finally, more than 1,000 on Dec 5 - about half of the flights it normally operates daily.

As thousands of furious passengers became stranded in major city airports over the weekend, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was forced to suspend the new pilot rest rules, cap fares to avoid price gouging and order more trains into operation.