IndiGo restores full operations after major disruption
India’s largest airline, IndiGo, has fully restored its network following a week of severe operational disruptions that stranded thousands of passengers across the country.
The airline confirmed it is now operating over 1,800 flights daily and has refunded more than Dh41 million to customers affected by the disruptions, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
Pieter Elbers, CEO of IndiGo, said the airline’s network and on-time performance had stabilised ahead of expectations. “I can confirm now that today, as of December 9, our operations are fully stabilised, which means flights reflected on our website are scheduled to operate with an adjusted network,” he said.
Elbers acknowledged the scale of customer inconvenience, calling the disruption “a major operational setback.” He said the company’s first priority had been to move stranded passengers safely to their destinations and process full refunds. “Lakhs of customers have already received their full refunds, and we continue to do so on a daily basis,” he said.
The airline has also begun returning baggage that was left behind at airports during the disruption. Elbers said that “most of the bags stuck at airports have already been delivered back to your homes,” adding that remaining baggage deliveries were being expedited.
IndiGo had seen its operations shrink to about 700 flights on December 5 before gradually recovering to 1,500 the next day and 1,800 by the end of the week. On Monday, the airline resumed flights to all 138 destinations in its network, with on-time performance improving to 91% compared to about 75% during the height of the crisis.
“The restoration of IndiGo’s network was being done on a war footing,” Elbers said, adding that the airline was back to handling its full schedule.
The disruption stemmed from new Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) rules introduced by India’s civil aviation regulator on November 1. The changes, aimed at enhancing passenger safety, require longer mandatory rest periods for flight crew and restrict the number of night-time landings.
Pilots are now entitled to 48 hours of rest per week, up from 36, while their maximum allowed night landings have been reduced from six to two. The Federation of Indian Pilots said IndiGo “was not able to make timely roster adjustments and plan its schedule properly” under the new safety parameters. Other carriers such as Air India and Akasa Air are understood to have adopted smoother transitions to the revised norms.
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