New Delhi. The crisis that arose in November-December of the country’s largest airline IndiGo has now raised a serious question. Sources said that IndiGo had sold tickets for the same months at huge discounts through several mega sales in the last four months on dates on which the airline already knew that flights would have to be canceled on a large scale due to shortage of pilots. Due to this, questions have also started being raised on the intentions of the airlines.
IndiGo was already aware of the new FDTL rules, yet did not prepare and thousands of air passengers had to bear the brunt of it. DGCA’s new Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) rules were to come into effect from November 1, 2025. Due to these rules, the duty hours of pilots were reduced, for which airlines needed additional crew. The industry knew about this change months ago. While other companies had already recruited pilots as per the demand, Indigo continued to be negligent.
Indigo bypassed the rules
While other aviation companies were trying to comply with the rules, IndiGo neither recruited enough pilots, adjusted its schedule in advance, nor limited bookings during peak periods. On the contrary, in four big sales running from August to November, tickets for travel from November 2025 to March-April 2026 were sold at the cheapest prices. This means that the company sold the most tickets on exactly those dates when thousands of flights had to be cancelled.
The timeline itself is giving testimony.
- 15-18 August 2025: There was Independence Day Sale, whose travel period was kept from 22 August 2025 to 31 March 2026. All the tickets for November-December were sold in this sale.
- 15-21 September 2025: Organized Grand Runaway Fest, whose travel period was kept as January-March 2026.
- 5-8 November 2025: Under Getaway Sale, tickets were sold for travel from 12 November 2025 to 30 April 2026.
- 25-28 November 2025: The company also sold a lot of tickets in the Black Friday Sale and its travel period was kept as January-June 2026.
The company continued to provide passengers and earn money.
As soon as the new rules were implemented, IndiGo’s roster collapsed. In the last one month, more than 2,000 flights were cancelled, passengers got angry at dozens of airports, complaints of missing luggage increased and lakhs of passengers got stranded. Aviation experts say that this is not just an operational problem, but a deliberate over-booking and a blind race to meet sales targets. Even though people faced problems during this period, the company earned a lot of money.
What mistake did the company make?
An expert, on the condition of anonymity, said that when you know that you will not have the crew, then why do you sell tickets for those dates at a 40-50% discount? This seems to be a strategy to lure the passengers, collect money first and cancel later. There is no clear answer from IndiGo on this issue yet. The company is only talking about ‘network reboot’ and ‘long-term stability’.
Things are becoming normal
International Air Transport Association (IATA) Director General Willie Walsh has said that IndiGo, which was facing crisis, now seems to be moving towards normalcy. He said that the airline is probably facing operational challenges due to the new flight duty rules of pilots. IndiGo is also a member of IATA, an organization representing 360 airlines around the world. Walsh said that it seems that operational challenges at IndiGo have increased due to the new flight duty rules.
