4 months ago
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The authorities connected Thursday (January 22, 2026) asked airlines to taxable their requests for operating home flights connected the slots vacated by IndiGo, pursuing the curtailment of the wintertime docket successful the aftermath of the December operational disruptions, according to an authoritative communication.
Between December 3 and 5 past year, IndiGo cancelled 2,507 flights and 1,852 flights were delayed, impacting implicit 3 lakh passengers astatine airports crossed the country.
Following the monolithic disruptions, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) reduced IndiGo's wintertime docket by 10%, which meant the hose had stopped operating services successful assorted slots.
The Civil Aviation Ministry's connection said the committee connected redistribution of the vacated IndiGo slots held its archetypal gathering connected January 13, wherein the process and principles for redistribution were discussed.
Following the deliberations, the sheet had present asked airlines to taxable their requests and preferences for the vacated slots, taxable to assorted conditions, it added.
As per the communication, the airlines person to nonstop their requests for the vacated slots to the airdrome operators acrophobic and the last determination connected the redistribution of the slots.
Among different conditions, the funny airlines should not discontinue their existing routes to utilise the vacated slots.
"No 1 [airline] wants to instrumentality their [IndiGo’s] slots. They are not leaving thing but the red-eye flights, which nary 1 wants to take. At the most, they are leaving 1 formation from a presumption wherever they person six flights. No one, successful fact, is funny successful insignificant slots, which they are vacating [after the authorities slashed their wintertime docket by 10%]," an hose manufacture enforcement said.
IndiGo is the country's largest hose that operates implicit 2,000 flights daily.
DGCA slaps good
On January 17, the DGCA announced slapping of fines totalling ₹22.20 crore for the December formation disruptions and had besides warned CEO Pieter Elbers and 2 different elder executives for the lapses.
It besides directed the hose to furnish a ₹50-crore slope warrant to guarantee semipermanent systemic corrections.
The watchdog, connected January 20, said the disruptions stemmed from mismanagement of capable formation crew, inadequate regulatory preparedness astatine the relation level, and shortcomings successful strategy bundle support, absorption structure, and operational control.
"The airline's readying processes did not adequately place operational deficiencies oregon support capable operational buffers. There was an overriding absorption connected maximising utilisation of crew, aircraft, and web resources, which led to reduced roster buffer margins.
"Crew rosters were designed to run astatine the limits of permissible work periods, with accrued reliance connected dead-heading, process swaps, extended work patterns, and minimal betterment margins. This attack compromised roster integrity and operational resilience and adversely impacted the effectual implementation of the revised FDTL provisions," it had said successful a statement.
On Thursday (January 22), IndiGo reported a 78% diminution successful nett astatine ₹549.1 crore for the 3 months ended December 2025 arsenic higher expenses crimped the bottommost line.
Apart from operational disruptions, implementation of the caller labour laws and currency movements took a toll connected the quarterly nett contempt higher revenues.
