DGCA Slaps ₹22.20 Crore Penalty on IndiGo Over Mass Flight Delays and Cancellations

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has imposed penalties to the tune of Rs 22.20 crore on the carrier IndiGo, following a probe into the large-scale flight delays and cancellations during December last year, that had affected more than three lakh passengers across the country.

The enforcement action follows an inquiry into the disruptions of flight operations between December 3 and 5, 2025, when the airline ended up cancelling 2,507 flights and delayed 1,852 others.

Taking action on directions from the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), the DGCA had constituted a four-member panel to examine the causes behind the breakdown in the operations.

During the inquiry, it was found that the primary reasons for the disruptions were “over-optimisation of operations,” inadequate regulatory preparedness, deficiencies in system software, and shortcomings in management structure and operational control at the airlines.

The committee noted that the airline failed to maintain sufficient operational buffers, and also did not effectively implement revised Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) norms, which resulted in the widespread cancellations and flight delays.

As per the findings, IndiGo’s planning approach prioritised maximum utilisation of aircraft and crew, sharply reducing roster buffer margins.

The schedules for the crew were designed to push duty limits, depending heavily on dead-heading, tail swaps, and extended duty patterns with minimal recovery time provided to them.

This, the report said, compromised roster integrity and weakened operational resilience.

After deliberations, the DGCA issued individual enforcement actions against senior IndiGo officials.

The CEO of the air carrier was cautioned for inadequate oversight of flight operations and crisis management, while the Accountable Manager and Chief Operating Officer received a warning for failing to assess the impact of the Winter Schedule 2025 and revised FDTL rules.

The Senior Vice President of the Operations Control Centre was warned and directed to be relieved of current operational responsibilities, with instructions to not be at any accountable position.

Several other senior officials of the airline were issued warnings, who were involved in flight operations, crew planning and in making the rosters.

In addition to these actions, the country's aviation regulator imposed one-time systemic penalties of Rs 1.80 crore for multiple violations of Civil Aviation Requirements (CARs).

A much larger penalty of Rs 20.40 crore was put for continued non-compliance with revised FDTL norms over a 68-day period from December 5, 2025, to February 10, 2026, which was calculated at Rs 30 lakh per day.

Apart from financial penalties, the airline has been directed to furnish a Rs 50-crore bank guarantee in favour of the DGCA under a framework titled the IndiGo Systemic Reform Assurance Scheme (ISRAS).

The phased release of the guarantee will be linked to regulator-verified reforms across leadership and governance, manpower planning and fatigue-risk management, digital systems and operational resilience, and sustained board-level oversight over a period of up to 15 months.