Mumbai, Jan 30: The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday that IndiGo cancelled a total of 5,689 flights during the month of December 2025, when it faced a severe operational crisis. The official figures reveal nearly twice the cancellations compared to the peak three-day cancellation figures put forward by IndiGo.
Written reply in Parliament
The official figures were provided in a written reply by Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol in response to a question asked by MP K.C. Venugopal. The answer highlighted a significant discrepancy between government data and the airline’s earlier public messaging.
Cancellations far exceed peak disruption period
IndiGo’s 5,689 cancellations for the month are more than double the figure of 2,507 cancellations that had been widely associated with the “peak three-day” period of disruption from December 3 to 5. The minister also stated that the airline’s December cancellations affected 9.02 lakh passengers across the country.
Pilot scheduling lapses cited
Notably, the disruptions stemmed from an operational failure to schedule pilots in accordance with the updated Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) rules, which mandate that airlines ensure crew members have a specified number of rest hours per week and a limited number of night landings.
IndiGo accounts for bulk of cancellations
According to Mohol’s reply, overall flight cancellations for December 2025 stood at 6,890, with IndiGo accounting for over 82 per cent of them. The total number of passengers affected by cancellations was 9.66 lakh, of which IndiGo accounted for a 93 per cent share.
Other cancellations included 924 by the Air India Group, 79 by SpiceJet, 71 by IndiaOne Air, 63 by Alliance Air, 39 by Akasa Air, 17 by Star Air and eight by Fly91.
DGCA action and penalties
The scale of the disruption prompted the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to take regulatory action. The minister told Parliament that the DGCA issued cautions and warnings to IndiGo’s senior management for deficiencies in oversight, planning and implementation of revised FDTL norms, directed the removal of the concerned senior vice-president from operational responsibilities, and instructed the airline to take further action and submit a compliance report.
He added that a one-time penalty of Rs 22.20 crore was imposed on IndiGo, and the airline was directed to furnish a bank guarantee of Rs 50 crore to ensure compliance with directives and long-term systemic corrective measures.
Systemic failures highlighted
While IndiGo initially attributed the chaos to “seasonal weather” and the implementation of new FDTL norms, the ministry’s reply in Parliament pointed to deeper systemic failures, including over-optimisation of operations, inadequate regulatory preparedness, software deficiencies, and shortcomings in management and operational control.
CEO acknowledges lapse
IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers, in his first press conference after the December crisis on Thursday, accepted the airline’s fault and said, “We failed our customers.”
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However, he did not accept the total number of cancellations and sought to justify the figures by stating that cancellations beyond the three days from December 3 to 5 were “proactive cancellations made by the airline, and we ensured that we informed our customers beforehand.”
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