IndiGo ramps up operations, issues Rs 610 crore in refunds after week-long disruptions

Visuals from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, where IndiGo passengers continue to be affected amid flight disruptions and cancellations.

As much as 87 per cent of respondents of a survey conducted on IndiGo passengers said they wanted service deficiency of the airline to be put under Class Action provision of the CP Act 2019, a statement said on Saturday.

A class action provision is a legal mechanism that allows a group of people with a common grievance to collectively sue a company for acts like mismanagement or fraud.

The survey was conducted by LocalCircles in the wake of domestic carrier IndiGo cancelling hundreds of flights in the last four days, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at various airports in the country, as airfares hit the skies.

There have been class-action (or proposed class-action) lawsuits—mostly outside India—against airlines over refund, cancellation, compensation and related issues, it said.

Beyond cancellations and delays, many IndiGo fliers raised serious concerns about refund integrity (deductions and delays), failed “zero-cancellation/insurance” promises, shifting itineraries without consent, and lack of adequate compensation or support even when they missed crucial flights, LocalCircles said.

The survey asked fliers, “Should the CCPA take up service deficiency of IndiGo under Class Action provision of the Consumer Protection Act 2019?” Out of 32,547 who responded to the question 87 per cent stated “yes, absolutely”; 3 per cent stated “no, not needed” and 10 per cent did not give a clear answer, it said.

“To sum up, 87 per cent of airline passengers surveyed want CCPA to take up service deficiency of Indigo under Class Action provision of the Consumer Protection Act 2019,” it said.

Many passengers who accepted cancellations or cancelled their own bookings say the refunds credited to them were well below the fare paid—despite the “100 per cent refund” assurance, as per the survey, which sought air passengers’ views on what they see as pertinent action by the government.

The survey received over 30,000 responses from consumers in 303 districts of India.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Saturday urged the Centre to act immediately and bring the IndiGo chaos under control, calling it the direct result of the government’s monopoly model.

Taking to social media platform X, Shivakumar said India was witnessing the worst aviation meltdown in its history. “Thousands of flights cancelled - leaving our people stranded everywhere.”

Shivakumar said the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru, which is India’s third busiest airport with nearly 40 million travellers a year, is in complete chaos.

“This is hurting families, businesses and our national reputation. I urge the Union Government to act immediately and bring this situation under control. Our people deserve better,” he added.

The Airlines’ Pilots Association (ALPA) India has taken a “strong” objection to the DGCA’s “selective and unsafe” relief to IndiGo, saying that the relaxations have not just “destroyed regulatory parity but also placed millions of passengers at heightened risk”.

Following the meeting convened by the Ministry of Civil Aviation with ALPA India and other pilot associations on December 5, the ministry announced that it has decided to place the implementation of the revised FDTL CAR in abeyance.

“ALPA India expresses its deep concern that this step directly contradicts the Court’s directions, which mandate the enforcement of fatigue-mitigation standards rooted in aviation science,” the Association said in a statement late Friday.

It stated that keeping the FDTL in abeyance not only undermines judicial authority but also heightens the risk to pilots and passengers by delaying essential fatigue protection.

“We urge the (Civil Aviation) Ministry and the regulator to uphold the Court's order in both letter and spirit and to prioritise the safety of the pilots and travelling public above all commercial considerations,” ALPA India said.

It is worth noting that IndiGo was the first carrier to oppose the new FDTL norms for pilots when they were introduced in January 2024, with a March implementation timeline.

The latest flight duty time limitations (FDTL) norms, which entail increased weekly rest periods to 48 hours, extended night hours, and limiting the number of night landings to only two, as against six earlier, were also initially opposed by other domestic airlines, including Tata Group-owned Air India.

But they were subsequently rolled out by the DGCA following the Delhi High Court's directives, albeit with a delay of over a year, in a phased manner, and with certain variations for airlines like IndiGo and Air India.

While the first phase of these FDTL norms came into force in July, the second phase, which reduced the number of night landings from six to two, was implemented from November 1.

The norms were originally to be put in place in March 2024.

Another pilots’ body Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) has alleged that IndiGo, despite getting a two-year preparatory window before the full implementation of new flight duty and rest period norms for cockpit crew, “inexplicably” adopted a “hiring freeze” policy.

“All other airlines have provisioned pilots adequately and remain largely unaffected due to timely planning and preparation,” it recently said, adding, “the current disruption is the direct consequence of IndiGo’s prolonged and unorthodox lean manpower strategy across departments, particularly in-flight operations”.

Domestic carrier IndiGo on Saturday said it operated only 700 flights on Friday against its usual number of 2,300, suggesting 1,600 cancellations during the day.

The airline had earlier said it had cancelled “over 1,000 flights” on Friday, when IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers, after maintaining a stoic silence on the crisis for three days, finally acknowledged that it was cancelling flights in big numbers.

Besides cancelling a record number of flights in a day by any Indian carrier in the country’s aviation history, IndiGo’s on-time performance hit rock bottom at 3.7 per cent on Friday, triggered by disruption in operations amid the transition to the second phase of new flight duty and rest period norms for pilots, shows the Civil Aviation Ministry website.

“We had cancelled a significant number of flights and operated a little above 700 flights yesterday (Friday) connecting 113 destinations,” an IndiGo spokesperson said in the statement.

IndiGo operates a total of 2300 daily flights per day.

“The main objective was to reboot the network, systems, and rosters so that we could start afresh today (Saturday) with higher number of flights, improved stability, and there are some early signs of improvement,” it said.

The airline said it operated 1,500 flights on Saturday.

It also said over 95 per cent of network connectivity has already been re-established as it has been able to operate to 135 of the existing 138 destinations in operations, adding, “we apologise once again”.

The Waltair Division of the East Coast Railway Zone in Visakhapatnam is running special trains to ease the travel rush to help people facing travel disruptions due to the mass flight cancellations by IndiGo.

Among the six special trains being operated by ECoR, one will depart from Waltair Division headquarters in Visakhapatnam on December 8 for SMVT Bengaluru, with the return service scheduled to arrive in the port city on December 9.

CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas on Saturday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee or a Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the unprecedented nationwide disruption of air services and the consequent surge in airfares.

In a letter addressed to the prime minister, Brittas said the disruption that came following the DGCA’s Flight Duty Time Limitation mandate resulted in daylight exploitation of passengers.

“The sudden cancellation and delay of a massive number of flights by the country's largest airline, IndiGo, which commands a dominant 63 to 65 per cent share of the domestic market, has effectively paralysed air travel nationwide,” Brittas said.

He said there is an “extraordinary concentration of market power”, due to which the failure of a single private operator translated into a failure of the entire system.

“What transformed this operational failure into a national scandal is the manner in which the disruption was converted into a profiteering opportunity. Domestic airfares skyrocketed to extortionate levels that defy any logic of cost, demand or fairness,” Brittas said.

Brittas said what passes as “competition” in Indian aviation is in reality a near lockout by two dominant players. “A duopoly unrivalled even among major global aviation markets,” he said.

He mentioned that in China, the three largest airlines together do not cumulatively cross 60 per cent market share, and in the United States, no single domestic airline holds more than roughly 25 per cent share.

Brittas also questioned why the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture for route-specific airfare capping and for the creation of a separate statutory regulatory authority to monitor and control air ticket pricing, made after the committee found that self-regulation by airlines failed, have not been implemented to date.

He added that the episode reflects not merely the failure of one airline, but “a deeper crisis of regulatory credibility, unchecked market concentration, consumer exploitation and weak enforcement architecture”.

“If this episode passes without independent scrutiny, it will establish a dangerous precedent where passenger suffering, diluted safety and predatory pricing are normalised,” he said.

“This matter can no longer be addressed through internal reviews or advisory circulars. The credibility of governance itself demands an independent, transparent and time-bound inquiry with full access to regulatory files, airline preparedness records and pricing data,” Brittas said.

He urged the prime minister to constitute either a Joint Parliamentary Committee or a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to comprehensively investigate the regulatory failures, airline preparedness, dilution of safety norms, fare escalation patterns, and the policy framework that has enabled such extreme concentration of market power.

He added that it should also examine “the urgent need for a statutory Passenger Bill of Rights guaranteeing automatic compensation, fair treatment and transparent pricing during mass disruptions”.

Five days after the IndiGo flight disruptions that left thousands of passengers stranded at airports pan-India, Tata Group-owned Air India on Saturday said it has taken several measures to “help” fliers, including introducing a special waiver on change or cancellation fees on eligible domestic bookings.

It also said Air India, along with its subsidiary Air India Express, has “proactively” capped economy airfares on non-stop domestic flights from December 4 to prevent the usual demand-supply dynamics applied by automated revenue management systems.

It said both carriers are also in the process of ensuring compliance with the latest directive on airfare caps announced by the Civil Aviation Ministry on Saturday.

To provide greater flexibility, Air India and Air India Express have introduced a special waiver on change or cancellation fees on eligible domestic bookings, the airline said.

With this, customers who booked their flights with either carrier until December 4 for travel until December 15 can reschedule their bookings to a future date without paying the applicable rescheduling fee (within the validity of the purchased ticket, as applicable) or can cancel their bookings with full refund (without any cancellation fee applied).

This one-time waiver is applicable for a change or cancellation made until December 8, 2025. Fare difference, if any, in case of rescheduling will apply, it said.

Authorities will take appropriate action in the matter of IndiGo flight disruptions depending on the inquiry committee findings, a senior government official told news agency PTI on Saturday.

As flight disruptions continued for the fifth straight day on Saturday, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu, along with senior civil aviation ministry officials, held a “serious meeting” with IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers to review the situation and address the issues, the official said.

The meeting, held in the national capital on Saturday, was attended by Civil Aviation Secretary Samir Kumar Sinha, and DGCA chief Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, among others.

At the meeting, IndiGo CEO was also asked to ensure that the airline complies with the new Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) within the given timeframe.

The official told PTI that the immediate priority is to restore normalcy in flight operations and the airline has been asked to ensure prompt refund of tickets.

Appropriate action will be taken depending on the findings of the inquiry panel, which is to submit its report in 15 days, the official said.

There have been reports that the authorities might take strong action against the airline and its CEO.

Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Friday set up a four-member inquiry panel to ascertain the reasons for the IndiGo situation and recommend mitigation measures.

The committee will submit its findings and recommendations to the DGCA within 15 days to enable necessary regulatory enforcement action and ensure institutional strengthening, the order said.