IndiGo’s recent operational collapse, triggered by the new Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) rules, has once again shown how quickly the airline can secure regulatory relief when its business model comes under pressure. For nearly a week, the country’s largest carrier was cancelling hundreds of flights a day. Passengers were left stranded, and IndiGo had no option but to acknowledge that it had miscalculated the number of pilots needed to operate its tight schedule under the revised norms.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) new rules, which came into force in phases from July and November, increased weekly rest requirements for pilots from 36 to 48 hours, cut the number of night landings permitted in a duty period from six to two, and expanded the definition of night duty to midnight through 6 am. For an airline that depends on very high aircraft and crew utilisation to make its low-cost model viable, these changes were not minor adjustments. IndiGo was running thin crews for years, with schedules built on squeezing maximum hours from both planes and pilots. When the rules tightened, the buffer vanished overnight.

After a week of cancellations and mounting public anger, IndiGo requested temporary exemptions. On December 5, the DGCA agreed. It relaxed some rules until February 10, 2026, including reverting night hours to midnight-5 am and allowing up to six landings again. The regulator stressed that it was not diluting safety, required IndiGo to submit a compliance road map within 30 days, and said it would monitor progress every two weeks.

© The Financial Express