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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi/Mumbai: As IndiGo, the country’s largest airline by market share, announces its December-quarter earnings on Thursday, the focus will be on the operational disruptions last month that unsettled passengers, regulators, and investors alike. The airline, with 63% market share, cancelled about 4,500 flights in the first week of December as it scrambled to adjust schedules to comply with revised flight duty time limitation (FDTL) norms for pilots.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Civil aviation minister K. Ram Mohan Naidu often highlights India’s rapid pace of airport creation—one new airport every 45–50 days.

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. 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.

The equity sales of company promoters in India reached a record in 2025, and their purchases fell to the lowest level since 2022, as valuation-driven monetization efforts drove sell calls throughout the year.The year 2025 saw promoter exits worth ₹1.38 trillion through secondary market deals alone, according to data from market intelligence firm PRIME Database. This figure represents a 22% increase from the ₹1.12 trillion figure recorded in 2024.

₹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.

Mint examines what relief the government is considering for Vodafone Idea, why AGR recalculation alone may not be enough, how high tariffs would need to rise for the company to remain viable, and whether India’s telecom market can sustain repeated price hikes without losing subscribers or competition.In October, the Supreme Court allowed the government to reassess Vodafone Idea’s adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues, which stood at ₹83,400 crore as of end of March 2025. The ruling came as a breather for the company, which has flagged concerns about its ability to survive beyond the current financial year without government support.AGR is the revenue base used to calculate licence fees and spectrum usage charges payable to the government.

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. The U.S. moved a large number of special-operations aircraft and multiple cargo planes filled with troops and equipment into the Caribbean area this week, giving the U.S.

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. 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. The RBI’s rate cut has generated strong buying interest at lower price levels, suggesting that the market trend is now turning positive. Although resistance remains at higher prices, the recent market decline has paused for now.

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. 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.