Written by Tanisha Cardozo || Team Allycaral Travel Desk
IndiGo faced one of its worst operational breakdowns in recent times on December 3, 2025, as skewed crew planning and shortages in pilot availability resulted in the cancellation of at least 200 flights and triggered massive delays across the country. Some aircraft were grounded for up to 12 hours, made worse by unexpected cabin crew no-shows in Mumbai, pushing the airline into crisis mode and forcing it to issue a public apology.
The situation had been building for weeks, but Wednesday marked a tipping point. At Delhi airport, frustrated passengers of a delayed Rajkot flight began chanting slogans after waiting six hours beyond their scheduled 5:40 a.m. departure, eventually taking off only at 11:30 a.m. Similar scenes unfolded in Mumbai, where passengers on a flight to Patna waited for hours as its departure time slipped from 11:15 a.m. to an estimated 8 p.m. Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport witnessed 62 cancellations for a second consecutive day, while Hyderabad saw 31 cancellations and Delhi 37.
The heart of the crisis lies in a severe pilot shortage fueled by the complete rollout of stricter duty-rest norms on November 1. These regulations, created to address rising concerns about crew fatigue, had been deferred by the government for a year to allow airlines sufficient time for planning. Their full enforcement came only after pilot associations won a case in the Delhi High Court earlier this year. IndiGo’s pilots have argued that the airline failed to prepare, with rostering teams pleading with crew members to withdraw sick leave and even offering 1.5x salary for forgoing privilege leave in recent weeks—efforts that have largely fallen flat.
Government data revealed the depth of the disruption: IndiGo recorded only 35% on-time performance on December 2 and under 50% on December 1. In its statement, the airline attributed the chaos to a combination of “unforeseen operational challenges,” including technical glitches, winter-season schedule changes, congestion, adverse weather, and the updated crew-rostering rules. These factors, it said, created a compounding impact the airline had not anticipated.
To stabilise operations, IndiGo announced that it would adjust schedules over the next 48 hours, signaling that further cancellations were likely. Meanwhile, the pilot body ALPA India cautioned against any attempts to dilute the fatigue-management norms, arguing that IndiGo’s failure lay not in the rules themselves but in insufficient resource planning. The organisation reiterated that any relaxation in duty limits would compromise both passenger and crew safety at a time when pilots are already stretched to the upper limit of 13-hour duty periods, with long-standing grievances such as stagnant salaries despite significant airline profits further aggravating the workforce.
The unfolding crisis reflects deeper tensions within India’s fast-growing aviation sector, where aggressive expansion often collides with the need to ensure adequate rest, safety, and working conditions for crew members. IndiGo now faces the challenge of restoring normalcy while grappling with the structural issues that pushed its operations into turmoil.
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