India’s busiest airline, IndiGo, has calmed corporate travel managers’ nerves by assuring the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) that it will not cancel or curtail any flights once its temporary exemptions from the country’s tighter Flight-Duty-Time-Limitation (FDTL) rules lapse on 10 February 2026.
At a meeting in New Delhi on 21 January, senior DGCA officials reviewed the airline’s pilot-roster projections and simulator-training pipeline. IndiGo reported that it now has sufficient cockpit crew to absorb the additional rest requirements introduced in December 2025 and therefore no longer needs dispensations granted during the busy holiday season.
The watchdog’s statement is significant for mobility planners. IndiGo operates more than 2,000 daily flights and carries roughly 60 % of India’s domestic passengers. Any large-scale cancellation cascade would have squeezed seat supply on trunk routes, pushing up last-minute fares for executive travellers and jeopardising onward international connections.
![DGCA secures IndiGo pledge to maintain full network after new crew-duty limits]()
Business travellers who are reassured by IndiGo’s operational stability can further streamline their journeys by using VisaHQ’s India portal (https://www.visahq.com/india/). The service helps companies and individual flyers obtain and track visas, work permits, and other essential travel documents online, reducing administrative friction and minimising the risk of last-minute documentation hiccups.
In the short term, the airline will run “shadow rosters” to stress-test scheduling resilience. Analysts say the episode highlights how labour-rule tightening can ripple through business-travel ecosystems, and why companies should diversify preferred-carrier agreements to hedge operational risk.
For assignees and frequent flyers, the takeaway is positive: barring weather or air-traffic disruptions, the IndiGo network should operate normally through the Republic Day restrictions later this week and into the spring-summer scheduling period. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
At a meeting in New Delhi on 21 January, senior DGCA officials reviewed the airline’s pilot-roster projections and simulator-training pipeline. IndiGo reported that it now has sufficient cockpit crew to absorb the additional rest requirements introduced in December 2025 and therefore no longer needs dispensations granted during the busy holiday season.
The watchdog’s statement is significant for mobility planners. IndiGo operates more than 2,000 daily flights and carries roughly 60 % of India’s domestic passengers. Any large-scale cancellation cascade would have squeezed seat supply on trunk routes, pushing up last-minute fares for executive travellers and jeopardising onward international connections.
Business travellers who are reassured by IndiGo’s operational stability can further streamline their journeys by using VisaHQ’s India portal (https://www.visahq.com/india/). The service helps companies and individual flyers obtain and track visas, work permits, and other essential travel documents online, reducing administrative friction and minimising the risk of last-minute documentation hiccups.
In the short term, the airline will run “shadow rosters” to stress-test scheduling resilience. Analysts say the episode highlights how labour-rule tightening can ripple through business-travel ecosystems, and why companies should diversify preferred-carrier agreements to hedge operational risk.
For assignees and frequent flyers, the takeaway is positive: barring weather or air-traffic disruptions, the IndiGo network should operate normally through the Republic Day restrictions later this week and into the spring-summer scheduling period. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
