New Delhi, India – India's aviation sector reeled from its worst disruptions in decades on Friday, as dominant low-cost carrier IndiGo cancelled all 235 domestic departures from the capital's Indira Gandhi International Airport until midnight, stranding tens of thousands of passengers and sending airfares skyrocketing amid a cascade of over 750 flight cancellations nationwide. The unprecedented halt, announced by airport operator Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) on X, marked the fourth consecutive day of turmoil for the airline, which commands 65% of the domestic market and operates 2,300 daily flights. Operations for other carriers remained unaffected, but the ripple effects – including blocked parking bays and delayed arrivals – compounded misery at hubs like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai, where IndiGo's outsized footprint amplified the crisis.
DIAL's midday advisory on X urged calm: "IndiGo domestic flights departing from Delhi Airport on 5th December 2025 are cancelled till midnight today (till 23:59 hours). Operations for all other carriers remain as scheduled." The statement, viewed over 150,000 times, prompted an immediate surge in alternative bookings, with Delhi-Mumbai return fares ballooning to Rs 60,000 – five times normal rates – as desperate travelers turned to rivals like Air India and Vistara. At Chennai's airport, IndiGo suspended all departures until 6 p.m., while Bengaluru reported 102 early cancellations, pushing the day's total past 500 by evening. Social media erupted with frustration: Videos of irate passengers chanting slogans at Delhi's Terminal 1 amassed millions of views, capturing scenes of families slumped on floors and arguments with ground staff.
IndiGo's woes trace to a perfect storm of internal missteps and external pressures. The airline attributed the breakdown to "challenges in crew planning and implementation of the revised flight duty time limitations (FDTL) norms, along with seasonal weather-related constraints," as revealed in a late Thursday briefing with Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) echoed this, noting "misjudgement and planning gaps" in Phase 2 of the FDTL rollout on November 1, 2025, which extended pilots' weekly rest to 48 hours from 36 and capped night landings at two per week – down from six – while broadening "night duty" definitions by an hour. IndiGo, with its high-utilization model of late-night "red-eye" flights, underestimated the crew shortfall by 20-25%, exacerbating issues from fog-bound winters and airport congestion.
The FDTL revisions, mandated by a Delhi High Court order to combat pilot fatigue after years of complaints, were phased in from July but hit full force in November despite airlines' pleas for delays. IndiGo's on-time performance plummeted to 8.5% at six major metros on Thursday – the lowest in two decades – with 550 cancellations that day alone. The carrier's CEO Pieter Elbers admitted in an internal memo to employees: "Given the size, scale and complexity of our network, these disruptions grow large immediately and require interventions on multiple levels." By Friday, cumulative cancellations since December 2 exceeded 1,500, affecting over 200,000 travelers and costing the economy an estimated Rs 500 crore in lost productivity and rebookings.
In response, the ministry convened an emergency meeting Thursday, directing IndiGo to submit a stabilization roadmap including crew recruitment (targeting 1,000 new pilots by March), roster overhauls, and fortnightly progress reports. The DGCA rolled back a key norm Friday allowing pilots to substitute weekly rest with leave – a concession critics decried as "arm-twisting" that undermines safety. IndiGo sought further exemptions on night duties until February 10, 2026, promising "normalised and stable operations" by then through damp-leasing 20 aircraft and lifting hiring freezes. From December 8, the airline plans a 10-15% schedule cut to decongest, but warned of 2-3 more days of pain.
Passenger anguish boiled over into viral outrage. Singapore's High Commissioner to India, Simon Wong, lamented on X: "I joined the tens of thousands of passengers stranded by #IndiGo. My flight to #Deoghar has been cancelled. My sincere apologies to my young staff waiting for me to attend his #shaadi. Lost for words." The post, with a photo of stranded crowds, drew tens of thousands of engagements. At Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International, delays averaged 4-6 hours, with one traveler tweeting: "Stuck since 2 a.m., no food, no info – IndiGo's monopoly is killing us." Protests erupted in Delhi, where opposition MPs demanded parliamentary probes.
The political backlash was swift and sharp. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seized the moment on X, posting: "IndiGo fiasco is the cost of this Govt’s monopoly model. Once again, it’s ordinary Indians who pay the price – in delays, cancellations and helplessness. India deserves fair competition in every sector, not match-fixing monopolies." The tweet, viewed over 700,000 times, linked to his broader critique of crony capitalism. Aviation Minister Naidu, facing parliamentary heat, assured probes and fare caps, but opposition demands for a joint committee gained traction amid fears of holiday-season escalation.
IndiGo's mea culpa came via X: "We confirm that all IndiGo domestic flights departing from Delhi Airport (DEL) on Dec 5, 2025 stand cancelled till 11:59 PM. We express our profound apologies... To support our affected customers, we are offering refreshments, next available flight options... hotel accommodation, assistance in retrieving their luggage and full refunds." Thousands of rooms and buses were mobilized, but complaints of inadequate aid flooded the platform.
As fog lifted Friday evening, the skies cleared little for travelers. With Christmas looming, the crisis – born of regulatory rigor clashing with corporate complacency – exposes aviation's fragility in the world's third-largest market, projected to hit 300 million passengers by 2026. Will DGCA's concessions restore balance, or erode hard-won safety gains? For now, IndiGo's grounded fleet mirrors a nation aloft yet anchored: Progress stalled at 30,000 feet, ordinary Indians footing the bill for elite oversights. As one stranded flyer posted: "From takeoff dreams to terminal nightmares – when will we land in a fairer sky?"
