As IndiGo flights continue to get cancelled across the country, the regulator DGCA has increased scrutiny on the airlines, and deployed some of its personnel to monitor their operations. As per reports, DGCA has formed an eight-member oversight team, and two of them will be deployed at IndiGo’s corporate office on a daily basis.
“In view of passenger inconvenience caused due to large-scale disruptions in the operations of IndiGo Airlines at various airports across the country, it has been decided to constitute an Oversight Team,” the DGCA said in a statement.
According to the order issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday, the oversight team will comprise a Deputy Chief Flight Operations Inspector, five senior FOIs (Flight Operations Inspector), and two FOIs. The members of the team are Capt. Vikram Sharma, Dy. CFOI(A), Capt. Kapil Mangalik, SFOI(A), Capt. V.P Singh, SFOI(A), Capt. Apoorva Agarwal, SFOI(A), Capt. Swati Loomba, SFOI(A), Capt. Aman Suhag, SFOI(A), Capt. Nitya Jain, FOI(A), and Capt. N. J. Singh, FOI(A).
The team has been asked to look at the airline’s total fleet, average stage length (distance that an aircraft travels in one leg), total number of pilots, network details, crew utilisation in hours, and crew under training, among others.
The two members deployed at the head office at Gurgaon will monitor IndiGo flights every day. The two-member team will look into Total fleet, Average Stage length, Total number of pilots, Network Details, Crew utilization in hours, Monthly/Daily Dead Heading (DH for flight duty), Crew under training, Split Duties, All unplanned leaves per day (like Sick leave, Casual leave and Emergency leave), Flights per day and available crew, Total number of sectors affected on account of crew shortage, Standby Crew per day and per base (cockpit and cabin).
DGCA issues an order – In view of passenger inconvenience caused due to large-scale disruptions in the operations of IndiGo Airlines at various airports across the country, it has been decided to constitute an Oversight Team with the following Members:
— ANI (@ANI) December 10, 2025
(i) Capt. Vikram Sharma,… pic.twitter.com/iRZ8CVPqBa
Apart from them, two other officers, Aishveer Singh Deputy Director (AED) and Mani Bhushan, Senior Statistical Officer, will also be deployed at the IndiGo corporate office. They will monitor IndiGo’s on-time performance, flight cancellations, baggage return and passenger refunds.
Both the teams will need to submit a daily report at 6 PM to the Joint Director General (Administration).
DGCA’s decision to deploy teams to monitor the airlines came after the Civil Aviation Ministry on Tuesday (9th December) stepped in strongly and ordered IndiGo to reduce its flight schedule by 10 per cent. This is double the 5 per cent cut that the aviation regulator DGCA had earlier directed.
The decision was taken by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) during a meeting with IndiGo’s CEO, Pieter Elbers. Civil Aviation Minister K. Rammohan Naidu said on X that the step was needed to stabilise the airline’s network and bring down cancellations.
During the last week, many passengers faced severe inconvenience due to Indigo’s internal mismanagement of crew rosters, flight schedules and inadequate communication. While the enquiry and necessary actions are underway, another meeting with Indigo’s top management was held to… pic.twitter.com/yw9jt3dtLR
— Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu (@RamMNK) December 9, 2025
IndiGo currently has a massive schedule with over 2,300 flights a day, out of which nearly 2,150 are domestic flights. With a 10 per cent reduction, the airline will now operate fewer than 1,950 daily domestic flights. Since IndiGo holds around 65% market share in India’s domestic aviation, any drop in its services directly affects travellers in large numbers.
Sources said that the flight slots freed by IndiGo might be offered to other airlines if they have enough aircraft and crew available to fly more routes.
Passengers face chaos, government steps in
Over the past week, passengers on several IndiGo flights experienced delays, confusion, long queues, misplaced baggage and poor communication from the airline. The Minister said that all this happened due to internal mismanagement by IndiGo, mainly related to crew rostering, faulty schedules and lack of proper updates to travellers.
Naidu said the government has already begun an enquiry into the issues and further action will be taken. He also mentioned that IndiGo’s CEO was summoned for the second time to give updates on how the airline is trying to fix its operations. The government has told IndiGo to speed up pending refunds and deliver all delayed baggage quickly.
The airline has informed that 100% refunds for flights cancelled till 6th December have already been processed.
IndiGo claims operations are stabilising
Meanwhile, IndiGo says that things are slowly getting back to normal. In a statement issued on Wednesday (10th December), the airline said it had operated over 1,800 flights on Tuesday (9th December) with on-time performance above 80%. It expects to increase this to around 1,900 flights on Wednesday (10th December).
The airline also said that almost all delayed baggage had been handed back to passengers, and the remaining bags would be delivered soon. IndiGo added that all flights shown on its website are currently scheduled to operate, although with some network adjustments.
However, now that the government has ordered a bigger 10% reduction, IndiGo will not be able to immediately return to its full normal schedule.
DGCA monitoring the situation closely
Earlier this week, the DGCA had directed IndiGo to cut around 110-115 flights per day, mainly from busy metro routes, to reduce congestion and prevent further cancellations. The regulator had given IndiGo time till 10th December evening to provide a fresh schedule. But following the government’s order, DGCA has now updated its instructions to reflect the increased curtailment.
Officials also indicated that if there are more delays or cancellations in the coming days, further rationalisation of IndiGo’s schedule could happen.
What caused the disruption?
According to DGCA, IndiGo has blamed the chaos on multiple problems happening at the same time. These include: Minor technical issues with some aircraft, Winter schedule changes, bad weather conditions, Heavy congestion in the aviation network and Implementation of new crew duty rules (FDTL Phase II).
The new rules about flying and rest hours for crew have affected the availability of pilots and cabin crew, which has hit network performance and led to more cancellations. The regulator said it is now reviewing IndiGo’s detailed explanation and will decide if further action is needed.
IndiGo is trying to slowly increase its flights and return to normal over the next few days. But with the government’s latest schedule cut, travellers may still see some cancellations and rebookings for a while.
The Ministry has assured that all destinations currently covered by IndiGo will continue to remain connected. For now, other airlines may get a chance to operate additional flights if they have capacity.
