IndiGo’s week-long meltdown, which left thousands of passengers stranded across major Indian cities, was the result of the airline’s “internal rostering and operational failures”, Civil Aviation Minister K. Rammohan Naidu told the Rajya Sabha on Monday. Breaking the government’s silence after days of mounting public anger, he said the disruption did not stem from any systemic lapse within the civil aviation infrastructure.
“The meltdown that we saw with IndiGo was not because of AMSS failure,” Naidu said, dismissing speculation that a glitch in the Automatic Message Switching System had triggered the crisis. Instead, he asserted, “The crisis involving IndiGo was due to their internal rostering and operational issue. It was because of their mismanagement of planning to regulate systematic functioning.”
The comments came after a week of widespread cancellations and lengthy delays, during which social media was flooded with videos of distressed passengers and stranded families. IndiGo had claimed that the chaos was primarily caused by its difficulty in adjusting to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s revised Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) rules for crew members.
However, Naidu rejected the suggestion that the new regulations were responsible. He emphasised that the norms, issued on 1 November 2025, were finalised “after considerable discussion with all stakeholders”. He noted that IndiGo had been given nearly 18 months to prepare for the changes but had failed to bolster its crew strength. “All due processes were followed… Fifteen guidelines were implemented from 1 July 2025 and the remaining from 1 November 2025,” he said.
The Minister also disclosed that the government had met IndiGo on 1 December after the airline sought clarifications on the FDTL rules. “They raised no concerns, and operations appeared to be proceeding smoothly. However, by 3 December, significant problems became evident, prompting the Ministry to intervene without delay,” he said, adding that the government subsequently took direct oversight at airports.
With air travel still recovering from the disruption, Naidu confirmed that a formal inquiry is under way. He warned that the government would not hesitate to act against any operator found to be in violation of aviation norms. “Strict action will be taken… Any miscompliance or non-adherence by any person, entity, organisation, or operator in civil aviation will attract very strict action to set an industry-wide example,” he said.
IndiGo cancelled over 2000 flights in the last week. Noting the fiasco, DGCA rolled back its new norms to provide temporary relief to the passenger carrier. "In view of the ongoing operational disruptions and representations received from various airlines regarding the need to ensure continuity and stability of operations, it has been considered necessary to review the said provision. Now, therefore, the instruction contained in the referenced paragraph that no leave shall be substituted for weekly rest is hereby withdrawn with immediate effect,” the DGCA said in a statement.
