IndiGo held aviation to ransom: This should cue a structural overhaul of the sector

It is apparent that IndiGo has used its dominance of India’s air travel market to blackmail the authorities into giving it relief—albeit temporary—from compliance with tighter rules on night landings and how long and late into the wee hours pilots and crew can be put to work. In the process, it has penalized the vast majority of air travellers.With the airline’s market share above 60%, its bulk cancellation of flights left passengers stranded and let rival operators fleece fliers with steep fares until the government stepped in to cap fares.This has exposed a regulator powerless to enforce its fiat in the face of determined resistance by a dominant player. This cannot be allowed to stand.

Antitrust action suggests itself. Stiff penalties must be levied. If IndiGo shows further obstinacy, it should face the threat of being split up to reduce market concentration.

That said, we must enable greater rivalry in Indian skies through various means. Efforts to develop and build a medium-haul passenger aircraft should be stepped up to deliver us from the global duopoly of Boeing and Airbus that has spelt long wait times for the delivery of such planes. India’s revised flight duty time limits were issued in January 2024 by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Pleas by airlines pushed their implementation forth to July and November 2025 in two stages. Carriers that were making their crews work longer hours than the new norms would permit had sufficient time to hire personnel to keep operations running smoothly.The rules were tweaked to ensure that passenger safety was not compromised by any gaps in concentration on the part of overworked and sleep-deprived pilots. No airline had complaints on this score.