Overview
- IndiGo is expected to tell the DGCA this week whether it can operate more than 2,000 daily flights once its exemption from stricter Flight Duty Time Limitation rules expires on February 10.
- The airline has been running roster dry runs and plans to build February schedules under the new duty-rest norms without seeking further exemptions, according to people familiar with the process.
- The DGCA continues daily scrutiny with officials stationed at IndiGo’s Gurugram office through February 10, while the ministry has ordered weekly compliance reports and a 10% cut to the winter schedule.
- The enforcement package includes a Rs 22.2 crore fine, warnings to senior leaders including CEO Pieter Elbers and COO Isidre Porqueras, removal of the operations control head from duties, and a Rs 50 crore bank guarantee under the ISRAS reform scheme.
- Regulators blamed over-optimised planning and weak buffers for December’s disruption, with DGCA data citing 2,507 cancellations and 1,852 severe delays over December 3–5, even as pilot groups called the penalty too small and investors largely shrugged it off.