IndiGo attributes chaos to 5 factors; govt vows to set an example

India's largest airline is under mounting regulatory and political pressure after a week of unprecedented flight cancellations that left hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded, drew rare public apologies from IndiGo's top leadership and triggered a wide-ranging government investigation into its operational preparedness and compliance with new pilot duty rules.

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The Directorate General of Civil Aviation is examining a detailed but "profusely apologetic" response from the carrier, as ministers warn that strict action will follow disruptions that grounded more than two-thirds of IndiGo's daily schedule at their peak and forced the airline into what it called a drastic network "reboot."

IndiGo submitted its reply to the DGCA's show cause notices on Monday evening, shortly before the extended deadline expired. The notices had been issued last Saturday after the regulator sought explanations for sweeping cancellations that began in early December and culminated on December 5 when over 1,000 flights, nearly half of the airline's roster for the day, were affected. While acknowledging the chaos caused to passengers, IndiGo said it was realistically not possible to identify precise causes within the notice period and sought more time, pointing out that the DGCA manual normally allows 15 days for such responses.

The airline attributed its troubles to what it described as the compounding impact of five coinciding factors. These included minor technical issues, schedule shifts linked to the onset of winter, adverse weather that led to congestion across the aviation system, the updated Flight Duty Time Limitation rules that came into force on November 1, 2025, and the operational adjustments needed under the new roster framework. According to the aviation ministry, IndiGo told the regulator that it had been engaging with officials for months about difficulties in implementing the Phase 2 FDTL rules and had sought variations or extensions before the revised norms took effect.