IndiGo Recovers Full Schedule After Week of Flight Chaos

IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers has announced that the airline has restored stable operations after a week of cancellations and delays that affected travel across India and several international routes.

How the disruptions began

In the week leading up to December 8, IndiGo cancelled and delayed hundreds of flights as its system struggled under operational stress. Major hubs such as Delhi, Bengaluru, and Mumbai were especially affected.

On the worst day, December 5, the airline completed only about 700 flights compared with its usual schedule of roughly 1,800 daily departures.

IndiGo’s recovery

Elbers said IndiGo moved quickly to rebuild its schedule. Operations rose from 700 flights on December 5 to around 1,500 on December 6, then to 1,650 on December 7, and returned to more than 1,800 flights on December 8 and 9.

He described the recovery as a round-the-clock effort involving staff across airports and operations centers. Teams worked to rebook passengers, return delayed baggage, and issue refunds where needed.

On December 9, IndiGo resumed service to all 138 destinations on its network.

What led to the crisis

The situation was triggered by the introduction of the second phase of India’s updated Flight Duty Time Limitation rules. The new rules limit night landings and require tighter rest periods for pilots to reduce fatigue.

IndiGo expanded its winter schedule by about 6 percent but underestimated the number of additional pilots required under the new regulations. As a result, it lacked enough crew members just as peak holiday travel demand increased.

To support recovery, the Indian government instructed IndiGo to temporarily reduce its schedule by 10 percent.

Where things stand now

Elbers stated that IndiGo’s operations were fully stabilized by December 9, which was earlier than the initial target of December 10 to December 15. Even so, passengers may still encounter occasional disruptions.

Photo by Shantanu Agrawal on Unsplash