Airports across the country are witnessing growing disorder as IndiGo’s operations continue to falter. Terminals are packed with restless passengers, long lines stretch across check-in areas, and frustrated travellers plead for answers at service counters. With flights repeatedly cancelled or delayed, India’s biggest airline has left thousands waiting for hours, turning the fourth consecutive day of disruptions into a nationwide ordeal.

IndiGo’s troubles have snowballed into a full-scale crisis, with the airline pointing to a mix of technical snags, winter scheduling shifts, airport congestion and weather issues. Yet industry experts say the turning point was the enforcement of the updated Flight Duty Time Limitations, which introduced stricter rest periods and tighter rules around night flying to prevent crew fatigue.

Although these norms were announced in early 2024, they were not actively implemented until now. The changes required pilots to take 48 hours of weekly rest instead of 36, restricted night landings to just two per week and expanded the night-duty window. With the airline already stretched by its winter schedule expansion on October 26, a large number of crew members suddenly became unavailable once the new requirements took effect.

The pressure grew worse after a software advisory for Airbus A320 aircraft delayed several flights over a weekend, pushing many services past midnight. What began as routine delays quickly spiralled into widespread cancellations once mandatory rest rules were triggered.

IndiGo’s massive size has magnified every setback. Operating more than 2,200 daily flights, the airline feels the impact of even the smallest disruption. A minor mismatch between rosters and crew availability can leave hundreds of flights grounded within hours. Delhi alone saw more than 200 cancellations on Friday, Bengaluru lost over 100 services, and Hyderabad recorded nearly the same. Across India, over 600 flights were cancelled in just two days.

Pilot groups argue that the airline failed to prepare for a rule change it knew was coming. They point to years of cost-cutting, minimal staffing buffers, slow hiring and scheduling patterns that ignored evolving fatigue norms. According to unions, other carriers updated their planning in advance and have avoided major problems, while IndiGo is now seeking relief from rules meant to keep flying safe. Regulators are also facing questions for approving IndiGo’s winter schedule without thoroughly assessing its pilot availability.

Meanwhile, passenger frustration continues to mount. Travellers report spending entire nights at airports waiting for updates that never arrived, only to have flights cancelled hours later. IndiGo’s on-time performance collapsed to under 20 percent on Wednesday, a dramatic fall for an airline known for its punctuality.

The carrier has warned that operations may not fully stabilise until February 2026. It is temporarily reducing its schedule and urging travellers to verify flight status before heading to the airport. Pilots, however, are calling on the DGCA to ensure future schedules are approved only when airlines prove they have adequate staffing.

IndiGo transported more passengers than any other Indian carrier last year, but the current crisis has exposed the limits of high-frequency, cost-efficient operations in an environment where stricter rest norms are non-negotiable. For now, the turbulence shows no sign of calming, and the airline faces one of the toughest operational challenges in its two decades of existence.

Air travel across India faced severe disruption on Thursday as IndiGo struggled to steady its operations, leading to more than three hundred cancellations in a single day. The ripple effect from earlier disturbances continued, following another round of cancellations on Wednesday, when the airline withdrew over one hundred and fifty flights and cautioned travellers that its network would undergo schedule adjustments for the next two days.

Government data showed a sharp drop in IndiGo’s punctuality, which slipped to under twenty percent on Wednesday, a steep fall from the previous day. The pressure was felt strongest at the nation’s busiest airports. According to an official familiar with the situation, dozens of flights from Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai had to be withdrawn on Thursday. The previous day had seen a similar pattern of cancellations across these hubs.

IndiGo had previously announced that temporary schedule corrections would help restore stability and improve punctuality. The airline claimed that teams on the ground were working continuously to reduce passenger discomfort and offer either refunds or alternate travel options to those affected. However, no fresh statement was issued on Thursday about the status of operations.

What triggered this widespread disruption was a combination of factors. Updated Flight Duty Time Limitations, which came into effect in November, required airlines to overhaul crew rosters. At the same time, a sudden software patch for Airbus A320 aircraft over the final weekend of November interfered with crew assignment systems. IndiGo was already operating under limited flexibility because of the new rest requirements for pilots, and this unexpected technological snag severely strained its scheduling ability.

Regulatory data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation revealed that November had already been a difficult month for IndiGo, with more than twelve hundred cancellations attributed largely to the new duty-time norms. The airline’s punctuality had slipped significantly from October as a result.

Operational difficulties were further compounded when baggage systems at Delhi’s Terminal 1 and Terminal 3 malfunctioned on Wednesday. Passengers arriving at the airport discovered their flights cancelled at the last minute, and many ended up missing onward connections.

The new duty-time rules were introduced in two stages earlier this year, with the goal of reducing pilot fatigue. Weekly rest periods were increased, night duty hours were expanded, and pilots were allowed fewer night landings. These changes required substantial restructuring of flight patterns across airlines, including IndiGo, which operates one of the largest nighttime networks in the country.

The aviation regulator has begun reviewing the situation. The DGCA summoned the airline to explain the reasons behind the breakdown and present an urgent recovery plan to curb delays and cancellations.

IndiGo remains India’s most expansive airline, with more than two thousand flights daily linking over ninety domestic destinations and dozens of international cities. As of early December, its fleet consisted of more than four hundred aircraft, though a rising number continue to remain grounded.

Pilot groups have also voiced concerns. The Airline Pilots Association of India criticised major carriers for failing to plan adequately for the new regulatory environment and accused them of leaning too heavily on stretched resources.

Aviation experts noted that IndiGo’s size, including its large share of nighttime flights, makes it particularly vulnerable when rest norms change. Analyst Ameya Joshi explained that the airline’s wide network and intense schedule require significantly more buffer to absorb such disruptions, making rapid recovery more challenging.