The departures of the CEOs of two of India's biggest airlines, Air India and IndiGo, which together account for 90 per cent of the domestic aviation market, need to be put in a proper context. These resignations, though overdue, clearly point to a deeper malaise within the domestic industry that will not go away even after two CEOs have exited. More of that later. The crisis at these two airlines was largely due to those at the helm either not taking the warning signs seriously enough to warrant immediate action to plug the loopholes, or their organisations not allowing them to do so. How else does one explain an incident as recent as April 9, 2026, when Air India flight AI-2812 from Mumbai to Bengaluru was forced to return shortly after takeoff due to a midair engine stall? This was not the only instance. There have been several others. Or the DGCA flagging in a note to Parliament that by early 2025–26, roughly 70–80 per cent of inspected Air India aircraft showed recurring technical faults. For an airline that has placed orders worth $90 billion and positioned itself as a world-class carrier, this gap between ambition and ground reality is deeply troubling. Take IndiGo, which, with a 65 per cent market share, has almost the entire domestic sky at its command. Whistleblowers and anonymous open letters from long-serving insiders accused top management of enforcing unsafe, fatigue-inducing rosters and a toxic internal culture. IndiGo kept ignoring them — until December, when the consequences proved impossible to contain. Its failure to adhere to the DGCA deadline for implementing Flight Duty Time Limitations sent the entire winter schedule into a tailspin, resulting in over 5,000 flight cancellations and leaving passengers completely blindsided and stranded.
Why do these two airlines repeatedly violate guidelines and safety norms, operating as though they can get away with almost anything?
This is where the roles of the regulator and the Government come squarely into question. For decades, both have repeatedly failed to modernise the system that governs the airline industry. Red tape, bureaucratic indulgence and Government largesse have kept the industry caged and unwieldy. The consequence is stark: passenger lives are endangered every time a flight takes off. Nobody, for instance, seems able to explain how SpiceJet continues to fly despite repeated safety violations, when by any reasonable measure it should have been grounded long ago.
The government must place passenger safety at the absolute core of its aviation policy and resist the temptation to shield national champions from accountability. Anything less is a dereliction of duty.
