Airlines Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. NEW DELHI/MUMBAI : The Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) decision to impose a financial penalty and issue a warning to IndiGo chief executive officer (CEO) Pieter Elbers and chief operating officer (COO) Isidre Porqueras over the weekend has ended more than a month-long regulatory row with the country’s largest airline that was triggered by widespread flight cancellations early December. While the move lifts the immediate regulatory overhang, questions remain over whether IndiGo can realistically induct enough pilots to meet India’s staffing and flight duty norms, according to four consultants and pilots.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Few industries anywhere in the world suffered the reputational damage that India’s airlines did in 2025. As the industry looks to reset, there is no better role model than Ryanair, the European low-cost carrier that is the most efficient and profitable airline in the world.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Mumbai, New Delhi: India’s domestic airfares slid to a four-year low in the October–December quarter, an unusual outcome for a seasonally strong period, as passenger traffic slowed through the year and demand weakened on non-metro routes.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: India’s plan to connect its interior areas by air has run into heavy weather, with expensive infrastructure and commercial viability playing spoilsport while hundreds of crores are being spent to maintain airports where no planes are landing. The total expense of the government is nearly ₹900 crore on 15 regional airports that are currently non-operational.

three photographs showing five individuals associated with the three airlines.NOC is short for no-objection certificate, the first step and a preliminary clearance before an airline obtains an air operator certificate (AOC) from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the regulator.In reality, Shankh Air had received the nod in September 2024, followed by AlHind Air sometime before March last year, according to a response by the minister of state for civil aviation, Murlidhar Mohol, in the Lok Sabha. Only FlyExpress received an NOC in December.The minister’s update came amid growing concerns of a market duopoly—IndiGo and Air India have a combined share of 90% in the Indian skies.

Unlike Charles Dickens’ fabled expression, it isn’t the best or worst of times for us in India; we have seen better and we have seen worse. Inspired, however, by the title of the celebrated work from which these lines are taken, I am going to tell a tale—not of two cities, but of two disruptions, both of which arrived on India’s scene with a bang, promising the consumer escape from mediocrity and even delivering on that promise for a while.This is a tale of IndiGo in aviation and Vodafone in telecom. Both injected competition into sectors long accustomed to limited choice and uneven service.

Dear reader, as 2025, a year of global tumult and volatility, rolled by, Mint's reporters and columnists looked around the corner on what is coming in 2026—to help you know what to expect and prepare for it. Tell us what you think at [email protected]: The past 12 months have likely been the most challenging yet for the chief executive officers (CEOs) of India’s two largest airlines, IndiGo and Air India, which together control about 91% of the country’s aviation market.In September 2022, Tata Sons appointed Campbell Wilson as CEO of Air India to revive the debt-laden carrier it had acquired from the government earlier that year, under a five-year phased transformation plan.

₹1,100 crore in FY26—nearly 70% higher than the ₹650 crore recorded last year—as the regional airline scales up operations, expands its fleet and raises fresh capital to double down on India’s smaller cities.In FY25, the company reported revenue of around ₹650 crore, of which nearly a third, about ₹200 crore, came from viability gap funding (VGF), said Shrenik Ghodawat, executive director of the group. The company is privately held and is yet to file its FY25 numbers with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).VGF is a subsidy provided by the Centre under the UDAN regional connectivity scheme to ensure the commercial viability of select unserved or underserved routes.

aircraft that carries goods instead of passengers.If freighter operations move out of Mumbai, cargo capacity will shrink sharply, pushing up air freight rates, Kumar said. Shipping from Navi Mumbai would also be more expensive as the airport has limited cargo freighters and no international passenger flights, reducing available belly space and creating supply constraints.In contrast, Delhi operates under an open sky policy, allowing a higher number of cargo flights.

Mint explains what the government’s NOC actually signifies, and why these approvals are unlikely, by themselves, to change the current structure of India’s aviation market any time soon.No. An NOC does not allow an airline to fly, sell tickets, or commence operations. It merely permits a company to begin the formal process of setting up an airline.Air Kerala illustrates the gap between approval and execution.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. A JetBlue plane was en route to Puerto Rico when its pilots got word from air-traffic control they were about to fly through a danger zone. The plane initially went into a holding pattern to stay safe.

canceled more than 4,500 flights due to a pilot shortage, failing to meet new DGCA regulations capping pilots' flying hours from midnight to 6AM. A nationwide uproar prompted the aviation ministry and DGCA to launch an investigation, slash IndiGo's daily flights by 10%, and demand explanations from IndiGo chief executive officer (CEO) Pieter Elbers and the airline's chief operating officer Isidre Porqueras.While the Indigo cancellations seems to have been a case of mismanagement by the airline, the role of ministry of civil aviation and DGCA came under the lens for lapses.“They did not spot the craters in time, they did not prune the expanded schedules in time nor they did not verify if they had the pilots for the schedule, even when they saw the troubles brewing in November,” said Sanjay Lazar, aviation safety specialist and CEO of Avialaz Consulting.Six months ago, Air India's Flight 171 crashed seconds after takeoff from Ahmedabad, with at least 260 fatalities.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. LONDON—President Trump’s crackdown on Chinese imports in the U.S. has redirected a tsunami of cheap stuff into Europe.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. MUMBAI : IndiGo’s parent, InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, has suffered a sharp sell-off due to the operational meltdown just days before its inclusion in the Sensex, becoming the worst-performing stock to enter the benchmark index in the last 15 years, based on one-month pre-inclusion returns. BSE Index Services announced on 21 November that InterGlobe Aviation would replace Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles on the prestigious 30-scrip index on 22 December.

Last fortnight, I was in Bengaluru, where, along with hundreds of other passengers, we saw IndiGo shuffle flight schedules like a pack of cards. Travellers across the country faced delays of up to 12 hours. The airline, controlling above 60% of India’s aviation market, had collapsed.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. MUMBAI : Institutional Investor Advisory Services India Ltd (IiAS) has faulted IndiGo’s promoter and managing director (M), Rahul Bhatia, for not leading from the front when the airline is facing its most challenging operational episode, even as the influential proxy advisory firm has sought a review of the current board structure, which allows Bhatia to nominate half of the board.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Shares of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, which runs IndiGo, are unlikely to stage a major recovery once the stock joins the Sensex on 22 December as investors await clarity on regulatory overhang, but its inclusion in the benchmark index could provide downside protection, several analysts told Mint.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Private bus operators and online ticketing platforms are hoping to retain more users as travellers stranded by the IndiGo flight cancellation fiasco seek out last-minute travel alternatives. From local travel companies to electric-bus startups, everyone is vying for a share of a market that has lit up like a Christmas tree.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. A ten-day turmoil and a compulsory flight reduction will slam the financials of IndiGo, three equity analysts said, even as the regulator stepped up scrutiny of India's largest airline. IndiGo, they said, may witness a 10% decline in full-year revenue and a 17-30% lower profitability in FY26, as it makes a halting recovery from its biggest disruption.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Shares of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, promoter of IndiGo airlines, have dropped about 15% since 1 December, as flight cancellations jumped from roughly 200 at the start of the crisis to over 1,000 by 5 December. IndiGo cited a multitude of “unforeseen operational challenges", primarily crew shortages triggered by the new flight duty time limitation (FDTL) rules that took effect for all airlines in November.

In the bustling skies of India, where air travel has become the lifeblood of a rapidly growing economy, a single airline’s dominance can destabilize the entire nation. December 2025 will long be remembered as the month when IndiGo, India’s undisputed aviation giant, triggered the country’s worst ever flight crisis with its disregard for regulation.In the past few days, this air carrier, boasting a fleet of over 350 aircraft and a domestic market share of around 64%, descended into chaos amid the cancellation of thousands of its flights that left tens of thousands of Indian passengers stranded.