IndiGo hikes cockpit crew allowances for captains and first officers from 2026, days after mass disruption: Details here

IndiGo has revised the cockpit crew allowances, effective 1 January 2026, for its Captains and First Officers, as per a statement issued by the airline on Monday.

This move comes in the wake of severe flight disruptions that plagued the airline earlier this month, wherein it had to cancel around 4,500 flights, leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers struggling across the country.

The central government had to relax night duty rules for pilots due to the widespread disruptions and to give IndiGo time to stabilise operations.

IndiGo, in its statement, says that if a domestic layover's duration is between 10:01 and 24 hours, the captain, who was previously entitled to receive ₹2,000, will now receive ₹3,000; while the First Officer, who was earlier entitled to ₹1,000, will now receive ₹1,500.

For every hour beyond 24 hours, the captain will be entitled to ₹150 (jump from the earlier ₹100), while the First Officer will be receiving ₹75 (jump from the earlier ₹50).

Similarly, deadhead, night allowances, tail-swap allowance, and transit allowance have also been increased.

Here are the new payment provisions:

Deadhead allowance: During the duration of the flight, the captain and the first officer were earlier entitled to ₹3,000 and ₹1,500, respectively, per scheduled block hour. The allowances have now been increased to ₹4,000 for the captain and ₹2,000 for the first officer.

Night allowance: Earlier, both the captain and the first officer were entitled to allowances on a"1.5 x Multiplier basis the night time would be considered towards calculating sector hours".

Now, the captain will be paid an allowance of ₹2,000 per night hour, while the first officer will be entitled to an allowance of ₹1,000 per night hour.

Tail-swap allowance: This is the latest addition to the allowance provisions for IndiGo's cockpit crew. Earlier, there was no provision for a Tail-swap allowance, but now captains and first officers will be entitled to ₹1,500 and ₹750 per tail swap, albeit with a provision: "Applicable for all combinations of Operation sectors and/or Deadhead sectors, within the duty period. Not applicable for Deadhead to Deadhead sectors."

Transit allowance: Earlier, if there was no lounge tie-up, the captain and the first officer were both provided a meal allowance of ₹500 if the halt was greater than 2 hours. Now, the captain will be entitled to ₹1,000 per hour while the first officer will receive ₹500 per hour.

The airline also said that the Transit Allowance is applicable on a pro-rata basis for all domestic halts beyond 90 minutes, and "would be applicable at all domestic stations irrespective of a lounge tie-up."

The limit for the same shall be 4 hours, as a hotel room shall be provided beyond that.

The airline also said that "Tail Swaps with a halt associated for greater than 90 minutes would be eligible to receive both the Tail Swap and Transit Allowance."

An email sent to pilots by Ashim Mittra, the airline's senior vice president for flight operations, reveals that the move to raise these allowances and introduce new ones came after its executives visited different bases and held talks with pilots, Reuters reported.