In December 2025, due to acute shortage of crew, especially pilots, Indigo Airline had to cancel thousands of flights and the situation became so bad that DGCA had to give temporary relief to the airline, but today on Tuesday (February 10, 2026) this relief has ended. After this, Indigo will have to completely follow the new and strict flight duty time limitation i.e. FDTL rules.
What changes were made in FDTL rules?
In the change under the new rules, the weekly rest for pilots was increased from 36 hours to 48 hours. Also, the limit for consecutive night landings was reduced from 6 to 2. After which, due to shortage of pilots in IndiGo, operational blunders were seen and after the relief, new rules will have to be followed again.
India made claim before DGCA
At the same time, now Indigo Airline claims that it has completed its preparations. Whereas the airline had almost no extra crew in December, now a crew buffer of 3 percent has been prepared in February. Apart from this, the number of standby pilots has also been increased to at least 15 percent, so that flights are not canceled due to sudden non-arrival of any pilot.
Many flights canceled due to bad weather
According to government officials, Indigo Airlines has now prepared sufficient pilot team for each aircraft. In December this number was less than 6, due to which the system was disrupted and more than 5,000 flights were cancelled. At that time DGCA had also imposed a record fine on Indigo.
According to recent data, the main reasons for the cancellation of flights in January were bad weather and airspace problems, not shortage of pilots. DGCA is also currently saying that in recent weeks, passengers have not faced any major problems due to the crew.
What will be the situation of Indigo once the relief ends?
However, aviation experts say that the real picture will gradually become clear after Tuesday (February 10, 2026). After the implementation of the new rules, it has to be seen whether IndiGo is able to run its flights smoothly even without relief or will have to make cuts once again, because as soon as the relief from DGCA ends, the real test of IndiGo’s operational preparedness has started.
