Indigo doesn’t give a shit. What about the government ?

For once, one is inclined to side with Rahul Gandhi (Congress leader) on his allegations that there are nexūs between big businesses and governments in India. Is Indigo a classic example of this nexus? Today it is Indigo. Tomorrow it could be Airtel-Jio (telecom) or Amul (butter and milk) or CAMS (MF assets management) or Gmail (mailbox provider) or Adani Ports (sea-port cargo) or Google Maps (web mapping) or Phone Pe / Google Pe (UPI) or Amazon-Flipkart (e-Commerce) or Swiggy-Zomato (food delivery). These near-monopoly / duopoly businesses can bully us no end and hold India to ransom. With 430 aircrafts, 2,300 flights every day, 130 connections, 5,500 pilots, 10,000 crew members and over 41,000 employees didn’t Indigo know as to what the revised regimen for flying entails and equip itself for the same? Given the mess it has created, one finds more credible the allegation that Indigo engineered this crisis to avoid compliance to the revised regulations i.e., Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL), something which it eventually achieved as implementation of FDTL has now been deferred for two months. Evidently, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has no issues if the safety of passengers is compromised for another two months.

Emboldened by its near-monopoly (over 60% market share), Indigo hatched a conspiracy to put passengers in grave misery and blackmail the Indian government, paradoxically, in collusion with the government itself. It all started on 3rd December 2025. An estimated number of 3,000 Indigo flights were cancelled in the following four days, creating an unprecedented crisis in the country. It was chaos everywhere. Thousands of passengers were stranded in almost all major airports / cities, facing harrowing times due to cancelled flights and missed domestic or international connections. Airports were choc-a-bloc as cancellations were not conveyed to passengers in time and they were not advised against coming to airports. The checked-in baggage was not returned to passengers for days. Instant refunds were shamelessly declined. Indigo’s ground staff, otherwise also infamous for their uncouthness, misled all with their uninformed responses. Then there was this spiraling effect. The Shylocks in competing airlines jacked up their fares nearly 4 to 8 times the normal ones. This includes the airline owned by the conglomerate which leaves no opportunity to shout itself hoarse about its philanthropic credentials. The hotels too extracted their pound of flesh by raising tariffs manifold. Cabs, apps-based as also others, had a field day as they surged their fares, remorselessly profiting from the misery of hapless passengers. The scenario was a cruel reminder of Covid-II which had underlined the fact that we have no national character even at the time of a public crisis.

FDTL, touted as villain of the piece, is a set of revised regulations mandated by the DGCA in January-2024 (first since 2019) to mitigate fatigue-related risks, ensure optimal crew performance and passenger safety. Broadly speaking, the revised regulations require that pilots need to rest at least 48 hours (earlier 36 hours) per week, night duty has been revised to a maximum of 2 landings (earlier 6 landings) and the term “night” stands redefined as 12 midnight to 6 am (earlier 12 midnight to 5 am). What did these changes require of all airlines is revision of their timetables, re-calibration of rosters, induction of more pilots (wherever required) and, alternatively, slim the number of flights (if inducting more pilots is not possible). Nearly two years were given to all airlines to ensure compliance to the revised FDTL with implementation deferred over two phases i.e., July-2025 and November-2025.

Coming back to the crisis perpetrated by Indigo. Aircrafts were there. Pilots were there. Cabin-crew was there. But funnily, flights were not. Why? Because the Indigo management, with bloated ego, thought it could get away making a mockery of FDTL compliances since it had the heft. What gave Indigo this confidence? Did it think that it could arm-twist (read blackmail) the government with sheer size of their operations and the travel industry’s super-heavy dependence thereon? Did it give a shit, drawing confidence from its alleged sub-terranean connections with the government, that its actions could create an unprecedented crisis like the instant one?

Internal enquiries and temporary capping of air fares by MoCA are fine. But, if the Govt. of India (read Narendra Modi) is serious to address the Indigo crisis and shed the label of always being subservient to big businesses, it needs to take actions, as follows, without any loss of time.

• Make public the details of funds received from Indigo or its affiliates by all political parties, including BJP, in the form of electoral bonds or otherwise. This will give the citizenry a clarity as to what extent our systems are compromised.
• Sack KRM Naidu (Minister of Civil Aviation), Faiz Ahmed Kidwai (Director General of Civil Aviation) and other senior officials with questionable moral compass which appears to have tilted in favor of Indigo a tad too frequently.
• Ensure that Rahul Bhatia (MD), Pieter Elbers (CEO) and Isidro Porqueeras (COO) of InterGlobe Aviation Limited, which runs Indigo airlines, are removed.
• Put an embargo on sale and purchase of shares of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd.  owned by the top management of Indigo and their close relatives.
• Dissolve the high-profile Board of Directors of Indigo and replace the same with simpler-but-competent persons with fair understanding of the operations of a complex, customer-facing organization which the current set evidently lacks.
• Confiscate the passports of the Minister of Civil Aviation, DGCA and senior Indigo officials (MD, CEO and COO), ensuring that they remain in the country as actions against them are initiated at various fora, their accountability determined and they are retributed befittingly.
• Ensure that Indigo makes full refunds not only for its own cancelled flights but also for the connecting or return flights of other airlines which passengers were not able to avail of because of cancellations by Indigo.
• Invite passengers to make claims for losses (direct or indirect) attributable to cancellation of flights by Indigo and facilitate financial compensation to the aggrieved passengers in a time-bound manner. Indigo is a profit-making company (Revenues: Rs. 84,110 cr & Profits: Rs. 7,253 cr in 2024-25) and shouldn’t be allowed to find ways to avoid its financial liability.
• Conduct an independent enquiry as to why additional 1,323 flights per week (from 13,691 flights per week last winter to 15,014 flights currently) were approved for Indigo for the ongoing winter schedule despite knowing that it was not equipped to operate even the existing number of flights under the revised FDTL. Pending the findings of the enquiry, suspend all officials of the MoCA involved in allotment of additional flights to Indigo. Basis the findings, sack all officials found responsible for the mindless benevolence shown by them to Indigo.
• Given the limitedness of Indigo’s capacities, take away flying routes / flights from Indigo, beyond what it can operate within the revised FDTL, and allot the same to other competing airlines which are equipped to operate the same in a compliant manner.
• Carry out a comprehensive enquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge into Indigo for waging an indirect war against the country as reflected in the current crisis. There are reasons galore. One, instead of ramping up recruitment of pilots, Indigo froze hiring and entered into non-poaching agreements during the preparatory window of FDTL.  Two, it deliberately contracted most its pilots sub-optimally for flying 50 hours a month and created a synthetic shortage knowing fully well that such an act was at cross-purposes with implementation of impending FDTL. Three, despite knowing fully well that its preparedness for implementation of FDTL was hugely lagging it still sought (like a dog in the manger) and got approval for additional 1,323 flights per week for the ongoing winter schedule to prevent these flights from going to the competition. Lastly, over-empathetic treatment to Indigo and absence of any review of the country’s largest airline’s preparations for implementation of FDTL requires a serious look at the possibility of a nexus between Indigo and the MoCA.