IndiGo assures DGCA of no flight cancellations from 10 February

Mumbai: IndiGo has informed the country’s civil aviation regulator that it will have adequate crew to fully comply with pilot rest norms by 10 February, as it seeks to put behind the December disruption that crippled India’s air travel.

In a weekly meeting with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday, India’s largest airline said it is prepared to operate without the two Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) exemptions that were earlier granted.

IndiGo’s assurance to the DGCA comes after the regulator imposed a ₹22.3 crore fine on the airline and warned three senior executives for poor planning in complying with the new pilot duty rules introduced late last year. The lapses had led to more than 4,500 flight cancellations, prompting the DGCA to order a 10% cut in IndiGo’s daily flight operations.

"During the meeting with DGCA on January 19, 2026, IndiGo assured operational stability and no flight cancellations after February 10, 2026, based on the current approved network, above crew strength, and the removal of the two FDTL exemptions approved on December 6, 2025,” the regulator's press release said on Tuesday.

IndiGo, which has a 63% market share, informed the DGCA on Tuesday that it currently has 2,400 captains and 2,240 first officers available for operations.

In early December, IndiGo outlined its pilot hiring ramp-up in a submission to the DGCA, stating that it planned to onboard 158 pilots by 10 February. As of December, the airline had 2,357 captains and 2,194 first officers available for operations. This was expected to rise to 2,425 captains and 2,284 first officers, with the planned addition of 68 captains and 90 first officers, according to a document reviewed by Mint.

The airline targets to hire 300 captains and 600 junior first officers by December 2026, the document had said.

IndiGo declined to offer a comment on Tuesday, citing a silent period before it declares its earnings on Thursday.

Till now, IndiGo has submitted four weekly and three fortnightly reports, and has participated in weekly review meetings with DGCA, providing updated data on all critical operational parameters, according to the DGCA statement.

On 5 December, DGCA relaxed FTDL norms after nationwide flight cancellations by IndiGo disrupted the country’s air travel. The aviation safety regulator allowed airlines not to differentiate between leave and weekly rest when rostering pilots and flight crew, and a one-time exception to IndiGo on consecutive night operations, which limited pilots to flying two back-to-back times between midnight and 6 am. The airline was given until 10 February to comply with the FTDL norms, which were rolled out in phases last year.

DGCA on Tuesday said IndiGo’s systems were stretched due to an aggressive focus on maximising the use of aircraft and crew, which led to the operational meltdown in the first week of December. Crew rosters were planned with very small buffer margins, leaving little room to absorb disruptions. Pilots were often scheduled close to their maximum allowed duty hours, with heavy reliance on practices such as dead-heading, aircraft swaps and extended duty patterns. This made the airline vulnerable when revised FTDL norms came into force, the regulator noted.

Between 6 December and 30 December 2025, the regulator had deployed flight operations inspectors and passenger facilitation staff at IndiGo’s Operations Control Centre and key airports. These teams monitored daily operations, passenger handling and regulatory compliance during the recovery phase.

A section of industry watchers are cautious on the carrier's commitments to the regulator.

“Indigo’s flight operations saw disruptions and cancellations in January too. In that context, any claim on pilot numbers being adequate and there being smoother operations 10 February onwards seems a little premature," says Mark D. Martin, aviation expert and founder and chief executive of Martin Consulting. "We need to see whether the airline’s management post their earnings clarify (to investors) on the steps taken to reduce or prevent future/similar disruptions. Pilot hiring ideally should be an ongoing process.”