Indigo operator Interglobe Aviation shares fall after cancelations
Passengers seen in intense rush and chaos at the IndiGo counter at Indira Gandhi International Airport Terminal 1 following a technical glitch on IndiGo that caused delays and cancellations of multiple flights in New Delhi, India, on December 4, 2025.
Hindustan Times | Hindustan Times | Getty Images
shares Interworld AviationThe operator of India’s largest airline, Indigo, fell more than 8% on Monday as the carrier grappled with multiple flight cancellations.
Indigo operates more than 2,300 flights per day, fly 706 flights were disrupted on Friday following a change in rules regarding pilots’ rest periods.
On Sunday the company said in a statement: operated 1,650 flights and “the network is expected to stabilize” by Wednesday.
Indian civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu said on Monday that the government had ordered an investigation into disruptions in Indigo’s flight services.
The minister warned the airline about the consequences of “non-compliance” and said, “We will take strict measures.”
Passenger troubles
EY consultant Chirag Shah, who was traveling from Abu Dhabi to Mumbai with his family, faced an 11-hour delay.
He said travelers, especially those with single-entry visas, are in a difficult situation.
The 11-hour delay revealed “an alarming lack of passenger support,” Shah told CNBC, adding that several passengers were reseated on a different Indigo flight “after hours of follow-up with airport officials.”
Indigo did not say whether it had issued full refunds for canceled and severely delayed flights after the government directive was given by 8 pm Indian time on Sunday. with do so. Indigo had processed 6.10 billion rupees (US$67.6 million) as of 5pm that day.
Shah said the only compromising offer he was offered was a free meal voucher from McDonalds.
Indigo Airlines and the Ministry of Civil Aviation had not responded to CNBC’s requests for comment by the time this article went live.
rule change
On Thursday, the airline told the ministry that the cancellations were due to “challenges in crew scheduling and implementation of revised Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms.”
According to the rules, announced Effective January 2024 and 1 November, pilots are expected to fly less late at night and crew rest time has been increased from 36 hours to 48 hours.
On Friday, after Indigo’s disruptions due to flight cancellations reached their peak, the government temporarily Suspended the application of Flight Duty Time Limitations rules.
According to local media reports, Indigo’s CEO Pieter Elbers was instructed by India’s aviation watchdog to explain the outage and was given additional time to submit his responses.
According to the International Air Transport Association, there will be 1.3 million scheduled flights in India in 2024, of which 1.1 million will be domestic.
In terms of planned seat capacity, Indigo dominates Indian air transport with a market share of 53.4%, up from 23% in 2016.
