IndiGo restores full flight operations after week-long disruption, CEO confirms

Dubai: India’s largest airline has fully restored its network after a week of severe operational disruption that grounded thousands of passengers across the country. IndiGo said it is now operating more than 1,800 flights daily and has refunded over Dh41 million to customers whose travel plans were affected.

Pieter Elbers, CEO of IndiGo, confirmed the normalisation of operations, saying the airline’s network and on-time performance had stabilised ahead of expectations. “I can confirm now that today, as of December 9, our operations are fully stabilised, which means flights reflected on our website are scheduled to operate with an adjusted network,” he said.

Elbers acknowledged the scale of customer inconvenience, calling the disruption “a major operational setback.” He said the company’s first priority had been to move stranded passengers safely to their destinations and process full refunds. “Lakhs of customers have already received their full refunds, and we continue to do so on a daily basis,” he said.

The airline has also begun returning baggage that was left behind at airports during the disruption. Elbers said that “most of the bags stuck at airports have already been delivered back to your homes,” adding that remaining baggage deliveries were being expedited.

IndiGo had seen its operations shrink to about 700 flights on December 5 before gradually recovering to 1,500 the next day and 1,800 by the end of the week. On Monday, the airline resumed flights to all 138 destinations in its network, with on-time performance improving to 91% compared to about 75% during the height of the crisis.

“The restoration of IndiGo’s network was being done on a war footing,” Elbers said, adding that the airline was back to handling its full schedule.

The disruption stemmed from new Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) rules introduced by India’s civil aviation regulator on November 1. The changes, aimed at enhancing passenger safety, require longer mandatory rest periods for flight crew and restrict the number of night-time landings.

Pilots are now entitled to 48 hours of rest per week, up from 36, while their maximum allowed night landings have been reduced from six to two. The Federation of Indian Pilots said IndiGo “was not able to make timely roster adjustments and plan its schedule properly” under the new safety parameters. Other carriers such as Air India and Akasa Air are understood to have adopted smoother transitions to the revised norms.

Elbers said the airline is now focusing on an internal review to ensure the episode does not repeat. “We continue to work in full cooperation with the government, and now that the immediate crisis is dealt with, we have started to focus internally on what has led to this, lessons learned to be drawn and how to emerge stronger,” he said.

While noting continuing frustration from some customers, Elbers added that bookings have begun to recover. “We’re getting heartwarming messages from our customers, and people are back to booking on our flights, which is giving us big encouragement,” he said.

IndiGo’s full recovery marks a relief for India’s aviation sector ahead of the busy holiday travel period, but the incident highlights the pressure airlines face to balance safety reforms with operational flexibility in an industry already stretched by pilot shortages.