Now that the “Fasten seat belts” indicators have been switched off and Indigo’s schedule is starting to return to regular, this can be a good time to try to determine the actual reason behind this fiasco. Not for the reason that Champaran satyagraha of Mahatma Gandhi has indigo stirred up such a hornet’s nest! Was the airline and its Board of Administrators caught napping by the November deadline of DGCA? Did they suppose the govt.. wouldn’t implement the FDTL (Flight Responsibility Time Limits)? Did they miscalculate the variety of pilots wanted beneath the brand new guidelines (because the CEO of Indigo has conveniently “admitted”)? The obtained knowledge of all of the consultants presently is that the reply to all three questions is a convincing YES. Having change into a congenital skeptic since 2014, nevertheless, I’m not all that positive. What I can clearly see, as a layman, is that Indigo has dished out a smorgasbord of blackmail and profiteering, its BOD assured within the perception that the Rs. 37 crore electoral bond donation to the BJP submit Covid would make sure that the regulator (DGCA) would look the opposite approach, as all regulators do. The entire thing seems to be deliberate, not negligence simpliciter, born out of a sense of conceitedness based mostly on market share and the data that the regulator was firmly in its pocket.
Indigo’s BOD reads like a Corridor of Fame, comprising of individuals with huge expertise of managing massive organisations and of coping with govt. laws; I can not subsequently settle for that they had been unaware of the implications of the brand new FDTL, each when it comes to funds and HR, or of what would occur to their operational schedules after Nov. 1, 2025 if they didn’t take instant motion to recruit extra pilots. This assumption is borne out by the truth that Indigo ADDED 200 day by day flights to its operations in 2025, taking the determine of day by day flights to nearly 2500. However- and that is the giveaway- it added solely 418 pilots (Enterprise At the moment, eighth Dec. 2025).
The airline’s reluctance to rent ample variety of pilots provides us a clue as to why it didn’t put together for the implementation of the brand new FDTL. Underneath these modified guidelines it wanted to recruit at the least 1000 extra pilots; its failure to take action is what has led to the chaos within the first week of December. Did its enterprise mannequin (BM) anticipate the chaos nevertheless it determined to do nothing anyway, as a way to make some extra bucks? Fairly a couple of bucks, truly. I see three distinct income incomes elements on this BM:
- The median month-to-month wage of a industrial pilot in India is about Rs. 5 lakhs, annual Rs. 60 lakhs. Including numerous flying allowances, this determine would go as much as about Rs. 80 lakhs each year. For the 1000 further pilots wanted, subsequently, Indigo would have needed to incur an extra expenditure of Rs. 800 crore each year. By not recruiting them the airline has saved Rs. 1460 crore over the 18 month interval given for implementing the FDTL guidelines (giving the phrase “low value airline” a completely new which means!). Sufficient to cock a snook on the authorities.
- Indigo couldn’t have been unaware that it must cancel numerous flights when the brand new FDTL got here into impact (as a result of it had not recruited the extra pilots required)- the variety of flights cancelled from December 4 in reality involves about 5000 as I write this. It shouldn’t have been arduous to do the cancellations prematurely in an ordered method as a result of the airline has superior software program that may calculate/match/venture the rostering of crew and flights. Nevertheless it went forward and accepted bookings for all flights as if it was enterprise as ordinary. The resultant chaos led to cancellations for about 500,000 passengers. Time for some calculations to compute how a lot further bucks Indigo should have made out of this.
The airline provides full refunds just for flights it itself cancels; if a passenger cancels then nearly half the fare quantity is forfeited as cancellation expenses. That is the place the catch (and the profiteering) lies: the airline SOP is to not announce cancellations prematurely (even when it is aware of that the flight needs to be cancelled finally) however to maintain delaying the flight incrementally, typically for 8 to 10 hours, until it lastly declares cancellation. When this turns into an everyday function, chaos ensues, passengers panic and begin cancelling themselves. That is the place the large bucks come rolling in.
Assuming that half of the five hundred,000 cancelled passengers aborted their flights themselves, and assuming that the common ticket worth was Rs. 10000 (each affordable assumptions), then the airline stood to make Rs. 125 crores from this deliberate extortion. Indigo additionally income from the opposite 50% (which it’ll refund at leisure) as a result of it’ll sit on this Rs.125 crores for at the least a month, utilizing it as free working capital! Nothing will occur to its share costs, however the general public outrage, as a result of the fliers don’t have a selection. Indigo shares dipped by single digits initially for a day, however are actually again on monitor. The inventory market doesn’t have a conscience or sense of proper or flawed; it’s amoral and reacts solely to floor realities. And the truth is that the buyer or public in India now doesn’t rely, he’s on the mercy of monopolies and duopolies, whether or not of the general public or personal sector- telecom, ports, airports, highways, cement, media, railways. He additionally doesn’t have any redress as a result of the Regulators serve the pursuits of the industries and companies they’re meant to control, and never that of the buyer. And the federal government doesn’t give a rattling because it continues to win elections by landslides; it doesn’t need to take heed to the voter as a result of it locks up the wanted votes lengthy earlier than any voter even units foot in a polling sales space.
The coverup has begun, as anticipated, with an inquiry ordered, present trigger notices issued and a ten% discount in Indigo’s flights; this isn’t even a band-aid. What must be done-immediately- is the next:
- Sack the Civil Aviation Minister, the Secretary (Aviation) and the DGCA. They should go, not just for having allowed this fiasco to play out, but additionally due to (a) permitting Indigo to accumulate a near-monopoly standing, (b) failing to watch the airline’s implementation standing of the FDTL guidelines for over 18 months, (c) allotting it one other 200 routes throughout this yr with out verifying its capability to function them as per the brand new guidelines, (d) succumbing to blackmail and deferring implementation of FDTL just for Indigo, additional compromising passenger security, (e) permitting 53% of DGCA’s employees complement to stay vacant, severely affecting its functioning.
- Sack all the Board of Administrators of Indigo for having did not implement govt laws, compromising security and inflicting avoidable trauma, distress and monetary loss to tens of millions of passengers. They’ve proved that they’re both over-rated showmen or under-rated extortionists. As for the blundering overseas CEO, perhaps the Prime Minister ought to direct his “Macaulay mind-set” barbs at the necessity to rent white skinned folks for high jobs, ignoring swadeshi expertise?
- Make public related extracts of the airways’ BOD minutes of the conferences over the past 18 months the place the FDTL was mentioned, in order that the general public may be made conscious of the particular causes for not implementing the brand new guidelines.
- Cut back Indigo’s routes by at the least 25% because it has simply established that it has not developed the capability to function all of them safely and is just performing because the canine within the manger. Allot these routes to different, compliant airways.
- Order Indigo to make full refund of all the ticket worth (together with taxes) of all tickets cancelled from 2.12.2025 onwards, no matter whether or not it was cancelled by the flyer or by the airline itself. It shouldn’t be allowed to revenue from its personal incompetence or the customers’ ache.
- Guarantee monetary compensation of at the least Rs. 10000 for every passenger who was not knowledgeable of his flight cancellation prematurely and needed to put up with hours of ready on the airports. This might be handled as a part of the wonderful to be imposed on the corporate.
- A extreme wonderful commensurate with the mayhem it has brought on needs to be imposed on the airline. One suggestion might be: a wonderful of Rs. 1 crore for each flight cancelled with out at the least a 12 hour advance discover to the passengers who had booked tickets.
- It’s common sense that Indigo can not totally adjust to the brand new FDTL guidelines even by February 2026. Due to this fact the Civil Aviation Ministry ought to make a public dedication that the brand new FDTL won’t be deferred past February 2026 beneath any circumstances, and that Indigo can be allowed to function solely as many routes because it has crews for in response to the brand new guidelines. This roster needs to be submitted by it to the DGCA at the least a month prematurely of the brand new deadline, and it shouldn’t be allowed to make any bookings for the flights it won’t be allowed to function.
The lives of 180 million passengers can not any longer be held hostage to a enterprise mannequin based mostly on the conceitedness of market share, blackmail and profiteering.
| The writer retired from the IAS in December 2010. A eager environmentalist and trekker he has revealed a e-book on excessive altitude trekking within the Himachal Himalayas: THE TRAILS LESS TRAVELLED.
His second book- SPECTRE OF CHOOR DHAR is a group of quick tales based mostly in Himachal that was revealed in July 2019. His third e-book was launched in August 2020: POLYTICKS, DEMOCKRAZY AND MUMBO JUMBO is a compilation of satirical and humorous articles on the state of our nation. His fourth e-book was revealed in July 2021. INDIA: THE WASTED YEARS – chronicles all of the missed alternatives within the final 9 years. His fifth e-book – THE DEPUTY COMMISSIONER’S DOG AND OTHER COLLEAGUES – launched in September 2023, portrays the lighter aspect of life within the IAS and in Himachal. He revealed his sixth e-book, DISAPPEARING DEMOCRACY-DISMANTLING OF A NATION in March 2024; it’s a commentary on occasions from 2021 to the current, a sequel to THE WASTED YEARS. Shukla writes for numerous publications and web sites on the setting, governance and social points. He divides his time between Delhi and his cottage in a small village above Shimla. He blogs at avayshukla.blogspot.com |
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