Flights are getting canceled somewhere. Wait for somewhere 12-12 hours. And rescheduling somewhere again and again. More than 550 flights were canceled on Thursday and more than a thousand on Friday. Thousands of passengers faced problems due to cancellation or delay of flights. And this happened in the country’s largest airline company Indigo.
This crisis of Indigo started from December 2. IndiGo’s flights were known to arrive on time but this week only a few of its flights were on time. Civil Aviation Ministry data shows that on the 2nd, only 35% of IndiGo flights were on time. Only 19.7% flights on 3rd December and 8.5% flights on 4th arrived on time. On December 5, only 3.7% of flights were on time. However, DGCA had withdrawn the rules on Friday itself, so its effect was visible on Saturday. On Saturday, 20.7% of IndiGo flights reached on time.
All this happened because IndiGo did not prepare according to the new rules regarding duty time for pilots and crew. Indigo himself also admitted that he had made a mistake in estimating. It had sought relaxation in the new rules of Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) from the Directorate of General Civil Aviation (DGCA). Ultimately, in view of the problems faced by the passengers, DGCA withdrew these rules.
Some experts are calling the situation created in Indigo as a ‘deliberately created situation’. He says that Indigo did this deliberately, so that it could put pressure on DGCA. When DGCA withdrew the rules on Friday, many people on social media called it ‘blackmailing’.
Read this also– ‘Ticket, Refund, Railways..’ What solution has the government found to the Indigo crisis?
Did Indigo blackmail?
After 4 days of chaos, DGCA finally withdrew the rules on Friday. Since then, many users on social media are raising questions that the government should not have succumbed to the ‘blackmailing’ of IndiGo.
A user named Kritika Shivaswamy wrote, ‘IndiGo has 65% market share and it easily troubled DGCA. The government succumbed to the deliberate pressure of Indigo. They should have ensured that IndiGo followed the rules, especially when there is no other option. Today DGCA withdrew the rules and put the safety of passengers at risk. worst.’
A user named Smita Barua wrote, ‘Indigo blackmailed DGCA by creating huge problems. Thousands of helpless passengers faced problems. It’s a long game and I’m sure there will be consequences. As a passenger, I will not travel with IndiGo unless there is no other option. Stop considering passengers as pawns.
Similarly, a user named Adi Achint wrote, ‘IndiGo was given 18 months’ notice and yet it did not prepare, whereas Air India had already hired 500 pilots. This mess is completely mismanagement, blackmail and arrogance of IndiGo.
Read this also–Such situations were created deliberately! Why do the new rules affect only IndiGo? understand
After all, how big is Indigo’s empire?
Indigo is currently the largest airline company in India. In 2006, Indigo’s first flight took off between New Delhi and Imphal. Today it occupies more than 65% of India’s market.
According to DGCA data, Indigo’s market share in October was 65.6%. This year, from January to October, about 13.74 crore passengers have traveled by air. Out of these, 8.86 passengers have traveled by Indigo flight. This means that two out of every three passengers have chosen IndiGo flights.
After IndiGo, the market share of Tata Group’s Air India was 25.7% in October. From January to October, 3.66 crore passengers have traveled by Air India Group flights. This means that 91.3% of the market is dominated by only IndiGo and Air India.
Apart from these two, Akasa Air’s market share in October was 5.2% and Spice Jet’s was 2.6%. Apart from these, the market share of companies like Alliance Air, Fly Big, Fly91, India One Air and Star Air is less than 1%.
Read this also–How will a person whose flight is canceled get a refund? Indigo gave the answer.
And where does Indigo stand in terms of earnings?
Indigo has more than 400 aircraft in its fleet. More than 2,300 aircraft fly every day. According to IndiGo’s website, IndiGo planes fly to 90 places in India and 40 places in the world.
Despite having such a huge market share, IndiGo’s revenue is not much more than Air India. Air India’s revenue in 2024-25 was Rs 78,636 crore. Whereas, Indigo’s revenue stood at Rs 84,098 crore. Earlier in 2023-24, the revenue of Air India was Rs 66,556 crore and that of IndiGo was Rs 68,904 crore.
However, Indigo is a profitable airline compared to Air India. Air India had a loss of Rs 10,859 crore in 2024-25. At the same time, Indigo had a profit of Rs 7,258 crore.
Not only this, the market cap of IndiGo is more than Rs 2 lakh crore. Indigo’s market cap has increased by 215% in 5 years. In December 2020, the market cap of IndiGo was Rs 66,577 crore.
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