India’s ambitious fatigue-risk management overhaul—designed to bring its Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) regime closer to ICAO best practice—hit a wall this week when IndiGo, the country’s largest carrier, admitted it had not rostered enough pilots to comply with the tighter limits. Hundreds of cancellations snowballed into more than 2,000 scrubbed flights, stranding wedding-season travellers and corporate road-warriors alike at all major hubs.
The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had increased mandatory weekly rest from 36 to 48 hours, slashed permissible night landings from six to two, and capped combined duty on overnight sectors at ten hours. Airlines must also file quarterly fatigue reports and, crucially, can no longer treat a pilot’s annual leave as part of the rest quota. While safety advocates applauded the science-based rules, IndiGo’s failure to hire and train fast enough exposed the fragility of Indian airline crewing models that run with wafer-thin reserves.
![India relaxes parts of new pilot-fatigue rules after IndiGo chaos]()
To stabilise the network, the Ministry of Civil Aviation issued a temporary exemption for IndiGo until 10 February 2026, suspending the night-landing cap, the duty-hour ceiling, and the ‘leave-is-not-rest’ clause. The basic 48-hour rest block, however, stays in force. Competitors such as Air India and Vistara must continue full compliance but have been asked to file contingency plans.
For business-travel managers the episode is a wake-up call: even a single carrier’s staffing mis-calculation can paralyse an entire domestic market where 60 % of seats sit on one airline. Companies are scrambling to update travel policies with dual-airline booking rules, flexible tickets and, where possible, rail alternatives.
In the medium term, experts believe the DGCA will stand firm—arguing that rested pilots are a non-negotiable safety pillar—and that airlines will have to invest in fatter crewing buffers and smarter rostering software. If they do not, regulators have made clear that coercive action, including financial penalties and schedule curbs, is now firmly on the table.
The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had increased mandatory weekly rest from 36 to 48 hours, slashed permissible night landings from six to two, and capped combined duty on overnight sectors at ten hours. Airlines must also file quarterly fatigue reports and, crucially, can no longer treat a pilot’s annual leave as part of the rest quota. While safety advocates applauded the science-based rules, IndiGo’s failure to hire and train fast enough exposed the fragility of Indian airline crewing models that run with wafer-thin reserves.
To stabilise the network, the Ministry of Civil Aviation issued a temporary exemption for IndiGo until 10 February 2026, suspending the night-landing cap, the duty-hour ceiling, and the ‘leave-is-not-rest’ clause. The basic 48-hour rest block, however, stays in force. Competitors such as Air India and Vistara must continue full compliance but have been asked to file contingency plans.
For business-travel managers the episode is a wake-up call: even a single carrier’s staffing mis-calculation can paralyse an entire domestic market where 60 % of seats sit on one airline. Companies are scrambling to update travel policies with dual-airline booking rules, flexible tickets and, where possible, rail alternatives.
In the medium term, experts believe the DGCA will stand firm—arguing that rested pilots are a non-negotiable safety pillar—and that airlines will have to invest in fatter crewing buffers and smarter rostering software. If they do not, regulators have made clear that coercive action, including financial penalties and schedule curbs, is now firmly on the table.
