IndiGo was the primary service to oppose the brand new FDTL norms for pilots after they have been launched in January 2024, with a March implementation timeline.
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FRANCIS MASCARENHAS
Home service IndiGo has cancelled over 200 flights from Delhi and Mumbai on Saturday, a day after managing to briefly safe main relaxations within the second part of the court-mandated new flight responsibility and relaxation interval norms for cockpit crew, sources mentioned.
Of those cancelled flights, 109 IndiGo flights have been cancelled at Mumbai airport, 51 arrivals and 58 departures, and 106 flights at Delhi airport, which included 54 departures and 52 arrivals, they mentioned.
On Friday, when IndiGo cancelled over 1,000 flights from throughout airports, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers, after sustaining a stoic silence over the grave disaster for 3 days, apologised in a video message for the key inconvenience triggered to passengers as a result of disruptions.
Within the one-way video communication, Elbers additionally mentioned that the airline was anticipating fewer than 1,000 flights on Saturday.
It might be talked about right here that on Friday, DGCA supplied momentary aid to IndiGo, which is partially owned by Rahul Bhatia, by means of rolling again the evening responsibility definition to 12 am-5 am from 12 am-6 am earlier, and permitting its pilots to do six night-landings from two earlier, in addition to different relaxations.
In the meantime, the pilots’ physique, Airways’ Pilots Affiliation (ALPA) India, has taken a “robust” objection to the DGCA’s “selective and unsafe” aid to IndiGo, saying that the relaxations haven’t simply “destroyed regulatory parity but in addition positioned tens of millions of passengers at “heightened danger”.
Following the assembly convened by the Ministry of Civil Aviation with ALPA India and different pilot associations on December 5, the Ministry introduced that it has determined to position the implementation of the revised FDTL CAR in abeyance.
“ALPA India expresses its deep concern that this step straight contradicts the Court docket’s instructions, which mandate the enforcement of fatigue-mitigation requirements rooted in aviation science,” the Affiliation mentioned in an announcement late Friday.
It said that conserving the FDTL in abeyance not solely undermines judicial authority but in addition heightens the danger to pilots and passengers by delaying important fatigue protections.
“We urge the (Civil Aviation) Ministry and the regulator to uphold the Court docket’s order in each letter and spirit and to prioritise the protection of the pilots and travelling public above all business concerns,” ALPA India mentioned.
It’s value noting that IndiGo was the primary service to oppose the brand new FDTL norms for pilots after they have been launched in January 2024, with a March implementation timeline.
It had been argued that the airways require extra time to place in place because of extra crew necessities. The newest FDTL norms, which entail elevated weekly relaxation intervals to 48 hours, prolonged evening hours, and limiting the variety of evening landings to solely two, as in opposition to six earlier, have been initially additionally opposed by home airways, together with IndiGo and Tata Group-owned Air India.
However they have been subsequently rolled out by the DGCA following the Delhi Excessive Court docket’s directives, albeit with a delay of over one yr, in a phased method, and with sure variations for airways like IndiGo and Air India.
Whereas the primary part of those FDTL norms got here into pressure in July, the second part, which diminished the variety of evening landings from six to 2 earlier, was carried out from November 1.
The norms have been initially to be put in place in March 2024.
Revealed on December 6, 2025
