India’s aviation regulator has issued a show-cause notice to IndiGo Chief Executive Officer Pieter Elbers, holding him directly accountable for a week-long operational meltdown.
That stranded thousands of passengers nationwide and forced the airline to cancel nearly 1,000 flights on Friday alone.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) described the intervention as one of its toughest in recent years, coming after days of public outrage over what officials termed “massive disruptions resulting in severe inconvenience, hardship and distress to passengers.”
According to the regulator, the chaos was triggered by IndiGo’s failure to make “adequate arrangements” for the rollout of revised Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) for pilots — a policy change notified months earlier and implemented on November 1. The DGCA said the airline did not adjust crew rosters or other operational resources in time, leading to widespread cancellations, delays, and cascading crew shortages across Indigo’s 138-destination network.
“It has been observed that scheduled flights of M/s IndiGo Airlines have recently faced massive disruptions resulting in severe inconvenience, hardship and distress to passengers,” the notice said.
“The primary cause of the disruptions is non-provisioning of adequate arrangements to cater to the revised requirements for smooth implementation of the approved FDTL scheme.”
The regulator also accused the airline of failing to comply with Rule 42A of the Aircraft Rules, 1937, and violating multiple Civil Aviation Requirements related to cockpit crew duty periods. It said IndiGo had not provided mandatory assistance, information, or facilities to passengers affected by cancellations and delays.
“As the CEO, you are responsible for ensuring effective management of the airline,” the notice states. “You have failed in your duty to ensure timely arrangements for reliable operations and availability of requisite facilities to passengers.”
The CEO has been asked to respond within 24 hours, after which the DGCA may proceed “ex parte” and consider penalties ranging from financial sanctions to operational restrictions.
After five days of turmoil, IndiGo said it had restored about 95% of its network by Saturday, operating flights to 135 of its 138 destinations. The airline expects to run more than 1,500 services by day’s end.
In a statement, IndiGo again apologised for the week’s disruptions, saying it remained “committed to building back the trust of our customers.”
On Friday, IndiGo suffered its worst single-day disruption, cancelling nearly 1,000 flights. It said it managed to run “a little above 700 flights” while carrying out a system-wide “reboot.”
“The main objective was to reboot the network, systems, and rosters so that we could start afresh today with a higher number of flights and improved stability,” an airline spokesperson said.
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