Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) announced on February 11 that IndiGo’s one-time exemption from key crew duty time rules has ended, with the airline set to fully comply with standard flight duty norms after a two-month period of intensified regulatory monitoring, according to a report in The Economic Times.
The temporary waiver had come at a sensitive time for India’s largest airline, which had been grappling with a combination of factors including tight crew availability, heavy travel demand and widespread flight disruptions. This drew sharp passenger criticism and prompted heightened regulatory attention, given IndiGo’s dominant share of domestic traffic and its central role in keeping India’s aviation system running smoothly. The aviation regulator had granted the temporary relaxation in December 2025.
The relief allowed the airline limited flexibility from certain provisions of Civil Aviation Requirements related to Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL), but only until February 10 and under strict conditions aimed at protecting passenger safety and stabilising operations.
During the exemption period, DGCA kept the airline under unusually close scrutiny. IndiGo was required to share hourly flight data, along with weekly and fortnightly operational reports, while aviation officials were stationed at airports to oversee passenger handling and address inconvenience. Flight Operations Inspectors were also deployed inside the airline’s operations control centre to monitor flights in real time — a rare step reflecting the seriousness of the disruption phase.
The primary reason other airlines didn’t require a special relief window is that they were not operating at the absolute legal ceiling of the old rules
The regulator said IndiGo has now informed it that the airline is fully prepared to return to normal compliance with approved FDTL rules. According to the carrier, all operational, rostering and monitoring arrangements are in place to ensure it meets statutory crew duty limits going forward. Interestingly, while India’s largest airline faced this huge “meltdown” in December 2025 that necessitated this temporary waiver, other airlines like Air India, Akasa Air, and Vistara were able to avoid similar chaos.
That’s because they managed pilot availability and rostering while staying within the stricter regulatory framework. Maintaining “regulatory headroom” The primary reason other airlines didn’t require a special relief window is that they were not operating at the absolute legal ceiling of the old rules. IndiGo was largely following an “edge strategy”. Before the change, its highutilisation model pushed pilots to the maximum permissible limits. When the DGCA tightened those limits, their entire roster became non-compliant overnight.
The competitors, on the other hand, had buffers. Airlines like Air India and Vistara already maintained more conservative schedules with higher pilotto-aircraft ratios. They had “headroom” — extra hours available in their pilots’ duty cycles — to absorb the new rest requirements (e.g., the jump from 36 to 48 hours of weekly rest) without cancelling flights. Aggressive “pre-emptive” hiring & training While IndiGo was catching up, other carriers utilised the 18-month lead time provided by the DGCA (from the first notification in early 2024) to beef up their numbers.
After an 18-month hiring pause, Akasa Air resumed aggressive recruitment in late 2025. By February, they reached a ratio of roughly 23 pilots per aircraft (750 pilots for 33 planes), which is considered very healthy. They also launched the “Family Fly Programme” to fast-track internal recruitment of employees’ relatives who hold CPLs. The Tata-owned Air India Group utilised its massive scale to recruit experienced captains from the global market and expanded its own training academies to ensure a steady “pipeline” of First Officers, reducing reliance on the open market.
Shift in rostering technology Managing the new “night duty” definition (00:00 to 06:00) and the cap of two night landings per week required sophisticated software. Airlines are now using predictive software. They have moved towards Fatigue Risk Management Systems (FRMS). Instead of manual scheduling, they use bio-mathematical modelling to predict when a pilot will hit peak fatigue, allowing them to build rosters that are legally compliant and physically sustainable.
Most airlines have now standardised crew buffer ratios on 7.0 to 7.2 crew sets per aircraft. This allows for a “standby” margin of roughly 15 per cent, ensuring that if one pilot hits a duty limit due to a weather delay, a reserve pilot is ready to take over. Strategic schedule pruning Rather than waiting for a crisis, several airlines proactively adjusted their “winter schedule” for 2025-26.
They introduced red-eye reduction, i.e., the frequency of flights landing in the 12 AM – 6 AM window was reduced. Since the new rules make “redeye” pilots less productive (they can often only fly one flight per shift), airlines shifted those slots to mid-day or evening hours where pilot productivity is higher.
Despite their success in avoiding a shutdown, most Indian airlines, including Air India, have recently petitioned the Ministry of Civil Aviation for minor “tweaks” to the rules. They argue that while safety is paramount, the current FDTL makes India’s aviation sector roughly 20-25 per cent more expensive to operate than international peers due to the massive increase in required headcount.
