IndiGo Flight Chaos: Over 1,000 Flights Cancelled Amid Pilot Fatigue Crisis

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India's largest airline, IndiGo, is facing its worst operational crisis, with over 1,000 flights cancelled in the past four days. The chaos has left thousands of passengers stranded, with long queues and frustrated appeals at airline counters becoming the norm. The crisis began when IndiGo implemented new crew rest and duty-hour rules, known as Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL), which restricted pilots' flying hours and rest periods. The rules, introduced in January 2024 but enforced recently, were designed to prevent pilot fatigue. However, the airline's expansion of its winter schedule on October 26 coincided with the new rules, forcing a large number of pilots into compulsory rest. This, combined with an Airbus A320 software advisory, triggered weekend delays and cascading cancellations. IndiGo operates over 2,200 flights a day, making it vulnerable to even small disruptions. The airline's scale has become a double-edged sword, with a tiny lapse in planning leading to enormous meltdowns. In a significant development, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) rolled back a key provision in the FDTL rules, allowing airlines to substitute leave for weekly rest. This move is expected to ease crew availability and help IndiGo restart flights. Pilot unions have blamed IndiGo management for ignoring warnings and failing to prepare staffing rosters, leading to the crisis. They claim other airlines prepared better and remain largely unaffected. The passenger nightmare continues, with many left stranded for hours without food or accommodation. IndiGo has apologized repeatedly and urged passengers to check flight status before leaving home. The airline has sought time till February 10, 2026 to fully stabilise operations and has begun cutting flights to contain the damage. However, the skies remain turbulent, and India's largest airline faces its toughest operational challenge in history. As the crisis deepens, pilots have urged DGCA to approve schedules only after airlines prove adequate crew strength, ensuring safety-driven policies don't get undermined by commercial overreach. The future of IndiGo's high-frequency, low-cost model is now under scrutiny, as the airline confronts the harsh truth that aggressive scaling is incompatible with tighter fatigue-control norms unless staffing grows proportionately.