5% cut in Ops: DGCA flags IndiGo’s failure to operate approved schedule
India’s civil aviation safety regulator has directed IndiGo to reduce its flight schedule by 5 per cent across sectors, especially high-demand routes.
As per an official notification, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has asked the airline to avoid flights on high-demand, high-frequency routes, and single-flight sectors.
The regulator has instructed the airline to submit a revised flight schedule by 5 p.m. on December 10, 2025.
According to the DGCA notice, the ‘Winter Schedule 2025’ approved for IndiGo was reviewed against the backdrop of widespread disruptions caused by large-scale cancellations.
The regulator said that 15,014 departures per week were approved for the airline under the ‘Winter Schedule’, amounting to 64,346 flights for November 2025.
However, as per the operational data submitted by IndiGo, only 59,438 flights were actually operated during November, while 951 cancellations were recorded during the month.
Furthermore, the notice stated that IndiGo was allowed a six per cent enhancement in its ‘Winter Schedule 2025’ compared with the ‘Summer Schedule 2025’, with 403 aircraft allocated versus 351 earlier.
Nevertheless, the airline operated only 339 aircraft in October and 344 in November.
The DGCA inferred that while IndiGo increased its departures by 9.66 per cent over ‘Winter Schedule 2024’ and by 6.05 per cent over ‘Summer Schedule 2025’, ‘it had not demonstrated the capability to operate the enhanced schedule efficiently’.
Meanwhile, giving an explanation on the recent flight disruptions, IndiGo has told the regulator that it is currently unable to “pinpoint the exact cause” behind the widespread disruptions that crippled its network last week.
Accordingly, IndiGo cited the complexity of its operations and requested more time to complete a full root cause analysis.
The airline informed the DGCA via response to the ‘Show Cause Notice’ issued in connection with the recent large scale operational disruptions and flight cancellations across the airlines network.
On Saturday, the DGCA had issued ‘Show Cause Notice’ to both IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers and the airline’s COO Isidre Porqueras.
Additionally, the four member DGCA panel set up to probe, the IndiGo crisis had summoned Elbers on December 10, 2025.
In its reply IndiGo said that it is “profusely apologetic” and deeply regrets the inconvenience and hardship caused to customers.
The airline attributed the disruption to the “compounding effect of multiple factors,” which operated in an “unfortunate and unforeseeable confluence”.
IndiGo stated that it is “realistically not possible to pinpoint the exact cause(s)” at this stage due to the complexity and wide scale of its operations.
In addition, the airline, noted that DGCA manual allows a fifteen-day response timeline for ‘Show Cause Notices’, and therefore more time is needed to complete a comprehensive ‘Root Cause Analysis’, which will be shared upon completion.
IndiGo has indicated that several preliminary factors contributed to the disruption including minor technical glitches, schedule changes linked to the onset of the winter season, adverse weather conditions, increased congestion in the aviation system, and the implementation of updated crew rostering rules under Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) Phase II.
Published on December 9, 2025
