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✈️ What’s going wrong: major disruptions

• IndiGo has cancelled or delayed hundreds to thousands of flights over the past few days — even more than 1,000 flights in a short stretch. The Economic Times+2The Times of India+2
• At some airports, all departures from IndiGo flights were canceled for entire days. The Times of India+2The Times of India+2
• Passengers have been seriously impacted: many were left stranded, faced huge delays, lost baggage, long queues — some even had to cancel or rearrange important travel like weddings. The Times of India+2People.com+2

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⚠️ Why is this happening — main causes

• The main cause: new pilot/crew rules under DGCA (the Indian aviation regulator) — called “Flight Duty Time Limitations” (FDTL) — that took effect recently. These rules increase mandatory rest for pilots, reduce frequency of night flights, limit night landings, and generally restrict how many hours pilots can work overnight. The Times of India+2Al Jazeera+2
• These changes clashed badly with IndiGo’s business model — which is built around having many flights daily (including many night and early-morning flights) and using pilots and planes intensively. The Indian Express+2Telegraph India+2
• Because of that, the airline was short on crew. It appears they underestimated how many more pilots/first-officers they’d need to meet the new rules, leading to a “crew-shortage + lean-staffing” problem. Telegraph India+2The Times of India+2
• Additional factors: weather, seasonal schedule changes, technical glitches, airport congestion — but these by themselves probably wouldn’t have caused this level of disruption without the crew-rest changes. www.ndtv.com+2The Times of India+2

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🏛️ Regulatory & Industry Context

• The new FDTL norms were introduced for safety — to avoid pilot fatigue. Al Jazeera+2Coastal Digest+2
• However, despite a phased rollout and advance notice since 2024, IndiGo didn’t prepare enough (e.g. via hiring) to cope with the new requirements, which made the disruption predictable but poorly handled by the airline. mint+2Telegraph India+2
• The crisis reveals deeper structural issues: because the airline is so big and dominates a large share of India’s domestic flights, a problem at IndiGo reverberates across the country’s air-travel system. mint+2India Today+2

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🔎 The Aftermath & Current Status

• The situation triggered strong backlash from travelers: many support legal action under the consumer protection laws. The Times of India+1
• The government imposed temporary airfare caps to stop price gouging by other airlines amid the disruption. Reuters+1
• IndiGo says it’s working to stabilise operations and aims to restore more normal flight schedules by around December 10, 2025. The Economic Times+1

See Timeline of Indigo Crisis

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Timeline (Dec 1–7, 2025) — reported cancellations & impact

Notes on sources/uncertainty: different news outlets reported different daily totals (some count only major airports, some include all regional sectors, some report the airline’s own “network reboot” cancellations). I report the most-commonly cited figures and give ranges where reporting differs.

Dec 1–2, 2025

• Status: Early signs of disruption; rising delays and initial cancellations reported from 2 December.
• Reported numbers: Only scattered cancellations reported (tens to low hundreds across network over the two days).
• Source: Live coverage and early reports. mint

Dec 3, 2025

• Reported cancellations: ~150 flights cancelled (major airports including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata).
• Impact: Growing passenger disruption, longer queues at counters. mint

Dec 4, 2025

• Reported cancellations: >550 flights cancelled across IndiGo network (widely reported figure).
• Impact: Significant disruption at many airports; government and airports begin emergency responses. mint

Dec 5, 2025 — Peak day (most outlets)

• Reported cancellations (day): Range reported: ~400 → 1,600+ — widely cited estimates put the single-day cancellations very high; several outlets flagged 1,000+ cancellations that day as the airline performed a “network reboot.”
• Cumulative impact to date: By this point cumulative cancellations reported in the hundreds → low thousands. Thousands of passengers were stranded; major upset during peak wedding/holiday travel period. The Times of India+1

Dec 6, 2025

• Reported cancellations that day: Reuters reported 385 cancellations on the fifth consecutive day of disruption (government interventions followed). Other outlets reported several hundred that day and noted ongoing recovery actions.
• Government action: Central govt capped some airfares on key routes and arranged rail/other relief; DGCA granted temporary operational relief/exemptions while probe and show-cause actions were initiated. Reuters+1

Dec 7, 2025

• Reported status: IndiGo reported network stabilisation progress (e.g., restoring >95% of links in some statements) but still cancelling dozens–hundreds of flights per day in pockets (reports of e.g., 41 flights cancelled at Lucknow, 76 at Kolkata on the day). Airline projected normalisation around Dec 10–15 (some statements Dec 10). IndiGo also published daily cancellation lists on its website. The Times of India+1

Aggregate / peak summary

• Total cancellations (widely reported cumulative range): ~2,000+ flights cancelled across the first week of December (some outlets cite 2,100+ cumulative cancellations as of early December). Different outlets give cumulative totals that vary; Al Jazeera and other international outlets reported “over 2,000” cancelled across the period. Al Jazeera+1
• Passengers affected: Reports consistently say thousands of passengers stranded and tens of thousands disrupted. (News outlets used terms like “thousands stranded”; precise airline-reported passenger totals were not uniformly published — refunds processed and baggage-return figures give partial view: e.g., news liveblogs reported ₹610 crore in refunds processed and ~3,000 bags delivered/handled in airline recovery operations as part of the response.) The Times of India+1
• When it peaked: Most sources mark Dec 4–5, 2025 as the peak of cancellations and passenger disruption. mint+1

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Why the numbers differ across outlets (short explanation)

• Some outlets counted only that day’s cancellations, others reported cumulative week totals.
• Airlines publish daily cancellation manifests (counts by flight number) while media aggregate from airports, DGCA statements, and airline releases — timing and methodology differ, producing ranges rather than one exact daily figure. IndiGo+1

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Quick links to primary reports I used

• Reuters — India caps airfares; reported 385 cancellations on a key day. Reuters
• LiveMint — detailed day-by-day timeline (Dec 3–5 figures: ~150 → 550 → 400+). mint
• Times of India live updates — live blog citing 1,000+ cancellations on the busiest day and refunds processed. The Times of India
• Al Jazeera — international summary reporting “more than 2,000 flights cancelled” and thousands stranded. Al Jazeera
• IndiGo cancellations page — airline’s daily list of cancelled flights (useful for verifying flight-level detail). IndiGo