Will IndiGo be able to operate more than 2,000 flights next month? The DGCA will have to answer.

News Topical, Digital Desk : The exemption from Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) norms granted to IndiGo's A320 fleet pilots is set to expire on February 10.

The airline will have to clearly inform the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) whether it will be able to operate more than 2,000 flights daily even with the new stricter regulations. If it cannot, the DGCA and the Aviation Ministry can take direct action and decide to cut flights.

To prevent a repeat of last December's incident where hundreds of IndiGo flights were cancelled and lakhs of passengers were stranded at airports, the government and regulators are now taking no risks.

New regulations increase the need for pilots

The new FDTL regulations aim to make flights safer by providing pilots with more rest. The weekly rest period has been increased from 36 to 48 hours, the number of landings on night flights has been limited, and total duty time has been reduced. These changes are leading IndiGo to require significantly more pilots for its A320 fleet.

According to the Times of India, IndiGo is currently conducting dry runs. In its scheduling software, it's matching the number of available pilots with the number of flights to see what the situation will be after February 10th. As of February 1st, the airline has begun creating crew rosters based on the new rules, meaning the old exemptions are now completely ignored.

A fine of Rs 22.2 crore was imposed

The DGCA conducted an investigation into the massive disruptions to IndiGo flights in December 2025. The report focused solely on the disruptions on December 3, 4, and 5, and imposed a fine of ₹222 million based on this. However, the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) says this does not reflect the full picture.

FIP President Captain CS Randhawa said, "Actually the problem continued till mid-December. Thousands of flights were affected and more than three lakh passengers were inconvenienced. By talking about just three days, DGCA has underestimated the actual situation."

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