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Informist, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025

MUMBAI – The unprecendented number of cancellations of IndiGo flights last week was not "deliberate" and the airline did not "bypass" pilot fatigue rules, IndiGo Chairman Vikram Singh Mehta said in a video message on X. He claimed that allegations of the airline engineering the crisis to influence the government were incorrect.

"...there are some allegations that are untrue," Mehta said. "That IndiGo engineered the crises. That we tried to influence government rules. That we compromised safety. That the Board was not involved. These claims are incorrect."

He said the board was involved with the management from the first day of the disruptions. The board has now received "relevent information" from the management about the implementation of new rules, he said. Further, the board has decided to involve external technical experts to determine the root causes and ensure "corrective action". 

Mehta said he did not make any statement till now as he wanted to support Chief Executive Officer Peter Elbers and focus on restoring operations. "Today (Wednesday), we are operating over 1900 flights. All 138 destinations are connected. One-time performance is back to normal high levels. With this stability achieved, I feel this is the right time for me to speak," he said.

The chairman did not give any additional information on the reason behind flight cancellations, which led to several people being stranded at major airports. He said the issue arose due to the updated crew rostering rules, minor technical glitches, scheduled changes linked to the start of the winter, adverse weather conditions, and increased congestion in the aviation system. "Clearly, this combination of events pushed our systems beyond their limit," he said.

InterGlobe Aviation, which owns IndiGo, had reported a net loss of INR 26.14 billion for the September quarter on revenue of INR 185.55 billion. On Wednesday, shares of the company closed at INR 4,805.50, down 3.3%.  End

Reported by Anshul Choudhary

Edited by Avishek Dutta

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