This isn’t a glitch; it’s a full-blown operational meltdown. For two days straight, India’s largest carrier, IndiGo, has been hemorrhaging flights and losing its reputation for punctuality. The DGCA is already on their neck, demanding answers.
The crisis is hitting hard, and it boils down to the fact that the airline, with its tightly wound operation, failed to plan for strict new pilot rest rules.
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IndiGo Meltdown: 250+ Flights Scrapped in 48 Hours
Chaos is the only word for it. Passengers are stranded, missed connections are everywhere, and the cancellations are spiraling.
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The Damage: On Thursday alone, at least 250 flights were scrubbed. That followed at least 150 flights canceled the day before. We’re talking 400+ flights wiped out in 48 hours.
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The Hubs Are Breaking: The cancellations are heavily concentrated. On Thursday, it was 85 from Mumbai, 73 from Bengaluru, and 68 from Hyderabad. Delhi saw 33 dropped flights too.
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Punctuality Died: The On-Time Performance (OTP) is the kicker. It dropped from 35% on Tuesday to a brutal 19.7% on Wednesday. That’s not an airline; that’s a traffic jam.
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The FDTL Rule Hit: The Real Cause
IndiGo’s excuse—technology glitches, weather, congestion—it sounds like a laundry list. But here’s the actual trigger: the new Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) rules.
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The Rule Change: The DGCA implemented the final phase on November 1st. The rules are about fighting pilot fatigue, which is a safety issue, or nothing. They mandated increasing weekly rest to 48 hours, extended night hours, and cut night landings from six to just two.
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The Rostering Failure Happened. And then the flight chaos followed. IndiGo, operating with minimal slack—high utilization is their whole business model—had no buffer when the new rest rules kicked in.
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The November Bleed: The airline had already canceled 1,232 flights in November alone. A staggering 755 of those were blamed specifically on FDTL issues. The strain was clear.
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DGCA Intervention and Pilot Anger
The regulator is not playing games.
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DGCA Summoned IndiGo: The DGCA has formally summoned the airline’s management to headquarters. They want the facts and, more importantly, a mitigation plan to fix this mess right now.
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The Software Patch: To compound the crisis, an emergency Airbus A320 software patch had to be rushed through over a weekend (Nov 29-30). This disruption hit the crew scheduling system at the absolute worst time.
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Pilot Bodies: The Airline Pilots Association of India, they are furious. They are calling this a “failure of proactive resource planning” by the airline. They had time to prepare. They didn’t.
IndiGo says they initiated “calibrated adjustments”—which is corporate speak for mass cancellations—for the next 48 hours to stabilize. Passengers are being offered refunds or alternate flights. But right now, across major airports, it’s still just massive frustration and uncertainty.
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