(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)

At least 175 IndiGo flights were cancelled early on Thursday in India as chaos at key airports worsened, after stringent government regulations on crew safety norms threw roster planning at the country's largest airline into disarray.

The disruptions have left thousands of travellers stranded for three days now. IndiGo, which has a domestic market share of more than 60 per cent, on Wednesday cancelled at least 150 flights across major cities.

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On Thursday, 73 flights were cancelled at Bengaluru airport, its spokesperson said. Around 395 were cancelled in Delhi, and 68 in Hyderabad, according to airport sources. Sharing the status at Mumbai Airport, ANI posted, "Planned cancellation for 04.12.2025 - Arrivals: 41; Departures: 44; Total cancellations: 85."

Why is IndiGo cancelling flights?

The airline did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters on Thursday, but has said this week the cancellations were due to various factors including stricter flight duty time limits introduced by India's aviation regulator to tackle pilot fatigue.

Out of the total of 1,232 flights cancelled by Indigo in November, 755 were due to crew and Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) constraints, India's aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), said an official release.

The DGCA said that 92 of these cancellations were an outcome of Air Traffic Control System failure, 258 were due to airport or airspace restrictions while other causes were behind the cancellation of 127 flights. These stats were based on data submitted by Indigo to the regulator.

“A large share of cancellations arose from crew/FDTL compliance and airport/airspace/ATC-related factors, many of which lie beyond the operator's direct control," they said.

The regulator is investigating the present situation with the airline and is working with it to reduce cancellations and delays.

What is FDTL?

The DGCA revised Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) in January last year. The new FDTL norms mandate training for roster planners, quarterly fatigue reports from airlines, and address stricter night flying rules. Pilots are now required to get 48 hours of weekly rest, and the number of night landings permitted has been reduced from six to just two.

The Federation of Indian Pilots said IndiGo was not able to make timely roster adjustments and plan its schedule properly ahead of a November 1 implementation date.

The Airline Pilots' Association of India (ALPA) has raised concerns whether the cancellations are part of a "calculated strategy", slamming the lack of proactive planning.

They said in a statement, "The situation concerning the recent flight cancellations across India allegedly attributed to pilot shortage due to new Flight Duty Time Limit (FDTL) norms, raises significant questions about the airline's management, regulatory oversight by the DGCA, and market fairness. The core question is whether airlines' current pilot shortage is due to a failure in planning or a calculated strategy. It is more likely a combination of factors...

"This situation points to a failure of proactive resource planning by dominant airlines, potentially exacerbated by an effort to pressurise the regulator to dilute the promulgated FDTL norms for commercial gain. ALPA India urges the DGCA to actively consider the adequacy of pilots available with an airline while granting slots and approving their schedules in the spirt of transitioning to the recent concept of Fatigue Risk Management System (FRMS)."

The crisis is a major setback for the two-decade-old airline that built its reputation on being punctual, coining the tagline "IndiGo Standard Time" when it shut plane gates well before departure time.

The airline's statement on Wednesday said it was making "calibrated adjustments" to its schedules for the next two days.

[With inputs from Reuters, ANI]

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