India’s largest airline IndiGo is in a crisis, which has thrown the country’s entire civil aviation ecosystem out of gear. With scores of flights cancelled daily this week, over 1,000 cancellations on Friday (December 5) alone, thousands of passengers were stranded, and scenes of chaos erupted at major airports across India. As the disruption continued to deepen, the airline received a rap on the knuckles from the country’s aviation authorities, who also initiated an inquiry into the widespread disruption. But they also evidently blinked and ended up giving the airline the relief it had sought.India’s aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Friday granted IndiGo a temporary one-time exemption from some night operations-related changes in the new Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) norms for its Airbus A320 pilots. The temporary rollback, which will be in place till February 10, is likely to help IndiGo—caught grossly unprepared for the new crew rest norms—to get its act together and stabilise operations from heron. The DGCA has also granted a few other temporary relaxations to IndiGo. The airline now expects the situation to normalise by December 10-15.The exemptions have elicited protests from the pilot associations and, as sources indicate, annoyed other Indian airlines that had put in the requisite efforts to prepare themselves for the new rules. Allegations are flying that IndiGo allowed the meltdown and used it to arm-twist the government and the regulator. But when an airline with over 60 per cent share of the domestic passenger market gets into such a severe tailspin, it brings the entire industry to its knees. It is, for all intended purposes, too big to fail, and with tens of thousands of passengers suffering every day, the DGCA and the Ministry of Civil Aviation found themselves between a rock and a hard place. To a large extent, even the authorities were caught napping as the crisis brewed for weeks before erupting this week.The exemptions granted to IndiGo and what they entailThe temporary exemption granted to IndiGo essentially means that the definition of ‘night’ for the airline will mean midnight to 5 am, instead of midnight to 6 am, as prescribed in the new FDTL rules. The exemptions also allow IndiGo pilots flying during these hours to perform up to six landings; the new norms had capped night landings to just two. The DGCA has also released 12 Flight Operations Inspectors (FOIs) on deputation with it from IndiGo for flying duties and simulator checks for a week. The DGCA order on the one-time exemptions stated that they are being granted solely to facilitate operational stabilisation and must not be construed as dilution of safety requirements.Additionally, the DGCA withdrew a clause related to a weekly rest period for all airlines in view of the disruptions. The new FDTL norms stipulated that no other leaves could be substituted against the mandatory weekly rest period of 48 hours for pilots; this has been withdrawn with immediate effect.Also Read | IndiGo disruption: Govt imposes airfare caps to bring down sky-high fares, check opportunistic pricing by airlinesThe new FDTL rules were implemented in two phases—from July 1 and November 1—with the aim of better managing pilot fatigue, which is a key risk to aviation safety. Under the new rules, the weekly rest period for pilots was increased to 48 hours from 36, and night landings were limited to two from six earlier. The new norms also extended the definition of night hours and capped consecutive night duties to just two days a week. The night duty-related changes took effect from November 1, and started impacting IndiGo’s flight operations, as the airline operates a significant number of night-time flights and follows a model that relies on high utilisation rates for aircraft and crew.According to the DGCA, the exemptions granted to IndiGo will be reviewed fortnightly with the airline required to submit every two weeks a progress report on actual utilisation of crew, steps taken to improve crew availability, operability improvements achieved, and revised crew planning and rostering measures. IndiGo was also directed by the regulator to submit within 30 days a roadmap for full compliance with the new FDTL rules.Story continues below this adIndiGo had on Thursday requested the DGCA for exemptions, primarily from night duty-related provisions in the new FDTL norms, till February 10. The airline had also informed the regulator that it will start reducing flight operations from Monday (December 8) to minimise the disruption, and expected normalised and stable operations to be fully restored by February 10. But it also said that more cancellations were likely over the next two-three days, and Friday turned out to be the worst day of the disruption with well over a thousand flights, accounting for over half of IndiGo’s daily scheduled flights, being cancelled.New crew rest rules and IndiGo’s planning disasterThe primary reason for this disruption is crew shortages in the wake of the new FDTL rules, which IndiGo did not plan for properly. As per the DGCA, IndiGo informed it that the disruptions “have arisen primarily from misjudgement and planning gaps in implementing” the second phase of new FDTL rules, with the airline accepting that the actual crew requirement for the new rules exceeded what it had anticipated. According to data presented to the DGCA by IndiGo, with the new FDTL rules, it requires 2,422 captains and 2,153 first officers to operate its Airbus A320 fleet to maintain stable operations. But it currently has 2,357 captains and 2,194 first officers operating the A320 aircraft.These new rules were initially planned to be implemented from June 2024, but faced pushback from IndiGo and other Indian airlines, who sought a staggered rollout over an extended period. The rules were implemented this year by the DGCA following a direction from the Delhi High Court. Given the implementation timeline, airlines had enough time to gear up for the rollout of the new crew rest and duty time rules. The DGCA also said it issued repeated directions and advance instructions from time to time to IndiGO on timely preparation for the new norms.Although the new FDTL rules apply to all domestic airlines, IndiGo has been the most severely-affected carrier. The factors that have made IndiGo more vulnerable, according to industry sources, include its massive scale of operations, a high-frequency network, significant number of night and wee hour flights, and high aircraft and crew utilisation levels, leaving little elbow room for the airline to manage crew shortages. With its fleet of over 400 aircraft, IndiGo operates over 2,300 flights a day. By contrast, the next biggest airline group—Air India—operates less than half the number of flights IndiGo operates.Story continues below this adIndiGo, which follows a lean manpower structure, also has fewer pilots per aircraft than other major carriers, as per industry insiders. To add to that, the airline went slow in hiring additional pilots, they said. Also, other Indian carriers are currently operating at lower-than-optimal aircraft utilisation levels due to reasons like delayed new aircraft deliveries and planes grounded for overhaul and refit, lending more flexibility in crew rostering. While IndiGo managed the new FDTL norms’ first phase—which included longer weekly rest periods for crew—without much impact, the second phase that included a curtailment of crew utilisation levels for the so-called red eye flights has hit IndiGo the hardest.Apologising to passengers on Friday, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers said the situation should normalise between December 10 and 15, in view of the airline’s size, scale, and complexity of operations. In a video message, Elbers said that cancellations would progressively reduce from hereon, with Saturday likely to have less than 1,000 flight cancellations. “…we decided today for a reboot of all our systems and schedules, resulting in the highest number of cancellations so far, but imperative for progressive improvements starting tomorrow onwards. With these actions, we expect tomorrow to have cancellations below 1,000. The support of DGCA, in providing specific FDTL implementation relief, is of great help,” Elbers said.A probe is underwayThe government has initiated an inquiry into the disruption, which has crippled the flight operations of India’s largest airline throughout this week with scores of cancellations and extended delays. Civil aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said Friday that the inquiry will examine what went wrong at IndiGo, determine accountability for appropriate actions, and recommend measures to prevent similar disruptions in the future, “ensuring that passengers do not face such hardships again”.A day earlier, Naidu had expressed “clear displeasure regarding the manner in which the situation has been handled by the airline” at a review meeting, the ministry said. Naidu had stressed that ample preparatory time was available to ensure a seamless transition to the new regulatory requirements.Story continues below this adAfter Naidu’s announcement of an inquiry, the DGCA announced the constitution of a four-member panel for a comprehensive review and assessment of the circumstances leading to the disruption. It will submit its report in 15 days to enable necessary regulatory enforcement action and ensure institutional strengthening, as per the DGCA order. The regulator said that the disruption at IndiGo “prima facie indicates deficiencies in internal oversight, operational preparedness, and compliance planning”, and required an independent examination.Pilot groupings miffed, accuse IndiGo of arm-twistingPilot grouping Airlines’ Pilots Association of India (ALPA India) alleged that the IndiGo disruption raises concern that an artificial crisis was engineered to exert pressure on the government for commercial gain under the pretext of public inconvenience. In a letter to the DGCA on Friday, the association sought a “thorough investigation into IndiGo’s creation of an artificial pilot-shortage narrative”. It also demanded an immediate withdrawal of the exemptions granted to IndiGo, and initiation of punitive and legal action against the airline.The association raised a strong objection to the exemptions granted to IndiGo, claiming that the decision has set a dangerous precedent. It said that the decision “has undermined the very spirit of the FDTL regulations and gravely compromised the safety of the flying public”. It also argued that IndiGo sought relief “on the pretext of passenger inconvenience”, despite having knowingly increased its winter operations while being fully aware of the implementation of the second phase of FDTL rules.“IndiGo has gone on record admitting that they misjudged their operational capability, yet, instead of reprimanding or penalising them for causing massive public inconvenience, the DGCA has proceeded to grant them further dispensations. This action has not only rewarded operational mismanagement but has also placed the lives of the flying public in direct danger,” the pilots’ body said in its letter to the regulator.Story continues below this ad“By granting selective exemptions to IndiGo, the DGCA has opened the door for all other operators to cite their own operational, commercial, or scheduling reasons to demand similar dispensations from the FDTL CAR (Civil Aviation Requirements). This undermines the very principle and purpose of the CAR itself. If dispensations can be granted based on each operator’s requirements, then the relevance, authority, and intent of the FDTL CAR is defeated entirely,” the association said.