Indigo Hiring: Budget Carrier Lifts Recruitment Freeze As Cancellations Persist, Invites Applications From Pilots

(MENAFN- Live Mint) IndiGo crisis: Amid the crisis that halted India's flight operations for nearly a week now, IndiGo has lifted its freeze on pilot hiring, issuing recruitment calls for its A320 family. This comes after thousands of IndiGo flight cancellations persisted for days, owing to the new pilot resting time rules of the government, which have now been lifted.

In a notification issued on its website over Friday and Saturday, IndiGo has invited applications from captains and senior first officers (type-rated) as it lifted the hiring freeze that started months ago, after the IndiGo flight cancellation problem persisted.

Also Read | IndiGo flight news LIVE: DGCA issues show-cause notice to CEO Elbers IndiGo cancellations: Airline starts hiring pilots

In a notification on Friday, IndiGo issued a recruitment call for captains and senior first officers (type-rated) for its Airbus A320 fleet.

Applicants for the senior first officer role must be 55 years of age and below, and should be an Indian national or OCI holder, IndiGo said in its job post.

They must also possess a valid DGCA issued ATPL with A320 endorsement along with valid FRTO, RTR, and Class 1 Medical, as per the post.

Also Read | IndiGo flight cancellations leave widow stuck with husband's coffin at airport

The pilots are required to have at least 200 hours of flying, and should have an accident and incident free record at the time of application, IndiGo said.

IndiGo hiring freeze amid new govt rules

The Pilots' body Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) had earlier accused IndiGo of implementing a hiring freeze despite knowing that the civil aviation ministry's new FTDL norms would require more numbers of people who could do the job.

On December 5, IndiGo cancelled over 1,000 flights in a single day, making it the highest in the airline's history. The same day, the government kept its FTDL norms in abeyance till February 10, 2026. The new FTDL norms mandated a 48 hour-rest for pilots per week, as opposed to 36 hours now.

The second phase of these norms, which came into force from November 1 and consist of change in night definition to 12am-6pm from 12 am-5 pm earlier, and restricting number of night landings to two from six earlier, applies to all domestic carriers.

Also Read | IndiGo flight cancellations to persist on Sunday? DGCA issues show cause notice to IndiGo

Aviation watchdog DGCA on Saturday issued show cause notices to IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers and Accountable Manager Isidro Porqueras seeking explanations within 24 hours on the massive flight disruptions.

“...as the CEO, you are responsible for ensuring effective management of the airline but you have failed in your duty to ensure timely arrangements for conduct of reliable operations and the availability of requisite facilities to the passengers,” it said in its notice to Elbers.

IndiGo in its latest update said it operated 1,500 flights on Saturday. It also said over 9% of network connectivity has already been re-established as it has been able to operate to 135 of the existing 138 destinations in operations

Key Takeaways

• IndiGo has resumed pilot recruitment after a freeze due to operational challenges.
• The airline's flight cancellations are linked to new government pilot resting time regulations.
• This decision reflects the company's efforts to stabilize operations amid ongoing crises.

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