New Delhi/Mumbai: 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.”
Earlier in the Lok Sabha, Minister Naidu told Parliament that no airline, regardless of size, would be allowed to inconvenience passengers due to planning failures or non-compliance with regulatory norms. “Strict and appropriate action will be taken,” he said, confirming that DGCA notices had already been issued to IndiGo and that the carrier was being held “fully accountable” for the disruptions triggered by its crew rostering lapses. He added that schedules were stabilising and that other airlines were operating normally across the country.
In his X post following the meeting with IndiGo’s chief executive, the minister said that over the past week many travellers had faced “severe inconvenience due to Indigo’s internal mismanagement of crew rosters, flight schedules and inadequate communication”. A further review of the airline’s stabilisation measures was held on Tuesday evening. According to him, Elbers “confirmed that 100 per cent of the refunds for flights affected till 6th December have been completed. A strict instruction to expedite the completion of the remaining refunds and baggage handover was given.” IndiGo has also been directed to comply with fare caps and all passenger convenience measures without exception.
The situation remained unsettled earlier on Tuesday as IndiGo cancelled 422 departures across six metro airports, marking the eighth consecutive day of disruptions. Before meeting the minister, Elbers released a video message stating that the airline’s operations had stabilised. “IndiGo is back on its feet, and our operations are stable. We’ve let you down when a major operational disruption happened, and we’re sorry for that,” he said. The CEO said the carrier had expected to normalise services between December 10 and 15 but could now confirm that by December 9 the network had been fully stabilised. Only flights displayed on the website would operate under the adjusted schedule, he added.
The DGCA, which has been scrutinising the airline’s planning processes, instructed IndiGo in a December 8 notice to submit a revised schedule by Wednesday. The regulator has also formed a four member committee to examine the operational lapses. IndiGo, which controls more than 65 per cent of the domestic market, has cancelled over 4,000 flights since December 2, affecting tens of thousands of passengers during a peak travel period. Its winter schedule reflected a 9.66 per cent rise in departures over last year, with a further 6.05 per cent increase over the preceding summer timetable. The DGCA said the airline had not demonstrated an ability to operate these expanded schedules reliably and directed it to cut flights by 5 per cent across sectors, focusing particularly on high-frequency routes and avoiding situations where a single daily flight was offered on a route.
The turmoil followed the introduction of stricter safety regulations that extended mandatory weekly rest for pilots and sharply curtailed permissible night landings and extended night duties. IndiGo’s model of heavy scheduling and high nighttime utilisation faltered under the new rules, triggering widespread delays and cancellations. The carrier cited congestion in the aviation system, adverse weather, minor technical issues and the shift in pilot rest norms from November 1 as contributing factors.
DGCA data shows that the regulator had approved 15,014 weekly IndiGo departures for the winter season. The airline had cancelled 951 flights in November out of 64,346 scheduled for the month. InterGlobe Aviation shares fell two per cent on Tuesday and have dropped more than 17 per cent so far this month.
Elbers said the airline moved quickly to assist stranded travellers and begin refunds. “Thousands of you could not travel, and we are profusely apologetic about that,” he said. He added that lakhs of customers had already received their money back and that most misplaced baggage had been returned. According to him, the network restoration was being carried out on a “war footing”. On December 5 the carrier operated only 700 flights, then increased to 1,500 on December 6, 1,650 on December 7 and more than 1,800 on both Monday and Tuesday. By Monday, IndiGo had resumed operations across all 138 destinations and reported that its on time performance had returned to normal.