People are heavily criticizing IndiGo Airlines, and rightly so. This is because more than 1700 IndiGo flights have been cancelled. In the first few days of December 2025.
This is causing considerable hardship for many people. Even middle-class individuals are facing losses of millions of money. Through no fault of their own.
Major problems caused by the cancellation of Indigo flights:
- Indigo was a better option for middle-class travelers in terms of fares. But now, middle-class people who had traveled from far away have had to stay in expensive hotels, due to the flight cancellations. This has unnecessarily burdened them with lakhs of rupees in expenses.
- The fares for the flights that are still available have been increased significantly. For example, the fare from Delhi to Lucknow has crossed Rs. 28,000 in Dec 2025 (According to NDTV India)
- A group of 65 people who had come from Pune to Udaipur for a wedding. They had a connecting flight from Delhi. However, due to the flight cancellation. The entire group of 65 people had to stay put.
- Passengers said that they are made to sit for the flights for 6-7 hours. After which the crew members announce that the flight has been canceled.
: Thousands of similar problems are arising, due to the continuous cancellation of Indigo flights.
IndiGo cited several reasons for this disruption :
(1) This happened due to the new roster rules under DGCA’s FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitations).
According to these roster rules – crew members can only fly for 8 hours per day, 35 hours per week, 125 hours per month, and 1000 hours per year. The number of landings pilots could perform each week was also reduced from 6 to 2. These rules were implemented in November 2025.
(2) Bad weather.
(3) Shortage of crew members.
Due to the poor management, Indigo and DGCA have offered the following relief to passengers.
Relief given to passengers by IngiGo and DGCA :
- Indigo announced that full refunds will be given for flight tickets booked by passengers between December 5th and 15th, if they are cancelled. (According to NDTV India)
- Indigo stated that passengers will be provided with free food and other facilities at the airport.
- Indigo will provide resting and sleeping facilities for senior citizens.
- The DGCA has withdrawn its newly implemented roster rules.
Indigo apologized for the poor management of flights:
Pieter Elbers (CEO of IndiGo) said that things would get better in the coming days.
IndiGo Operations Normalised | A Message From Pieter Elbers, CEO, IndiGo pic.twitter.com/VVB2yTsIBy
— IndiGo (@IndiGo6E) December 9, 2025
Due to all these measures, it is hoped that the situation will improve in the coming days. Because the facilities provided by Indigo are quite good.
By the way, Today people may be criticizing IndiGo. but it’s the same Indian company that two friends built from the ground up, making it so successful. That it still holds a 60 percent market share in the Indian Aviation Sector.
Let’s learn more about the two friends who built IndiGo into such a massive company.
The glorious history of Indigo’s rise:
For the past few days, Indigo has been facing a lot of criticism on social media and in the news. Passengers, opposition leaders, and journalists are all criticizing it, and rightly so. Because the cancellation of more than 1700 flights in just 4 days is no ordinary matter.
But today let’s talk about how Indigo became such a large company in the Indian market.
The story of two friends who built a great Airlines company like IndiGo :
The story behind the formation and success of this company is the story of two friends. Rakesh Gangwal and Rahul Bhatia. They started this company in 2006. This was a time when there were already many airlines in India. Such as Jet Airways, and also Kingfisher, which was a luxury airline.
Besides these, there were many other private and government-owned airlines in India. Therefore, entering this field at that time seemed like madness. But these two decided to enter this field anyway and created the Indigo company.
Let’s try to understand this a little better. There are two things involved: one is the Aircraft manufacturing company, which manufactures the airplanes. And the other is the Airline company. Which buys those planes and operates them.
At that time, there were only two major aircraft manufacturing companies:
- Boeing
- Airbus
Indigo’s deal with Airbus :
Indigo chose Airbus. And despite being a new company, Indigo did something that shocked everyone. Indigo placed an order for 100 Airplanes from Airbus. This was a very large order. Therefore, Airbus gave them a discount of approximately 40%.
For example:
If one Airplane costs 2,000 crore rupees. Then 100 Airplanes would cost 200,000 crore rupees. But due to the 40% discount, Indigo got these 100 Airplanes for 120,000 crore rupees.
The Indigo owners told Airbus that they needed one Airplane every 45 days. This benefited both parties. Airbus also got enough time to fulfill a large order of 100 Airplanes.
But here, Indigo showed the most shrewdness. They started selling these 100 Airplanes to other private companies at a 20% discount. That is, the Airplane that other companies were getting for 2,000 crore rupees, Indigo made available to them for 1,600 crore rupees. This directly resulted in a profit of several crore rupees for them. And with that money, they bought new Airplanes.
Indigo’s unique approach to building its brand:
Indigo started operating its flights. But the crucial question was why people would choose Indigo, over the established and trusted airlines already operating. They then tried to understand the psychology of Indian consumers. Indians prefer paying less over comfort. Therefore, IndiGo airlines lowered its ticket prices. Making air travel accessible to the middle class.
In essence, they focused on increasing passenger numbers rather than incurring unnecessary expenses. This became the biggest reason for Indigo’s success in India. At that time, airlines like Kingfisher were also operating, offering very luxurious services. Therefore, Indigo became the first choice for middle-class people.
“That’s why people around the world say that if you set your mind to doing something just once in your life, nothing is impossible. If you too want to learn something from a real-life story like this, then you must read this. This story will show you a better way to live your life.”
Problems faced by IndiGo and their solutions:
(1) The Global economic crash of 2008 led to a significant increase in oil prices. That year, all airlines in India suffered losses worth crores of rupees. However, IndiGo was the only company that made a profit of 82 crore rupees that year.
(2) In 2018-19, the two friends who started the company. Rakesh Gangwal and Rahul Bhatia, began to have disagreements. These disagreements escalated to the point where Rakesh Gangwal alleged that “IndiGo’s decisions were made more for Rahul Bhatia’s benefit than for the benefit of the shareholders”. Following this, Rakesh Gangwal resigned from the company in 2022 (According to Jansatta).
Despite all this, IndiGo did not let its internal problems affect its business operations. And the company’s profits did not decline.
(3) During the COVID-19 pandemic. when everything was shut down. All airports were empty. And the entire market was suffering losses. IndiGo halved the salaries of its pilots and crew members. They also converted their IndiGo flights into cargo flights. To mitigate the situation and generate some profit.
Conclusion:
As you can see, even though everyone in the country is criticizing IndiGo Airlines today. But this is the same airline that has taken India to great heights in the airline sector.
Yes, currently, there is anger among the public. Due to its poor management and the cancellation of more than 1700 flights in just 4 days. However, it is hoped that the situation will improve after the new roster rules are withdrawn. And IndiGo Airlines will once again transport people to their destinations on time, just like before.
