The recent IndiGo fiasco has exposed several weak links in the enforcement of regulations in the aviation sector. Though this crisis was attributed to due to airline-related technology and operational issues, MoS Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol rightly said the reason behind the chaos was that IndiGo and its management did not take the new Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) rules seriously. The first phase of FDTL came into force from July, 2025, while the second phase was implemented from November 1, 2025. The updated rules—effective in phases raised mandatory weekly rest, restricted consecutive night duties, sharply cut allowable night landings and redefined night hours. These rules meant that airlines had to hire more pilots, as each could only fly two consecutive nights before resting.
News reports indicate that these new FDTL norms forced a large number of IndiGo’s pilots into compulsory rest just as the airline expanded its frequency for the winter schedule on October 26. The crunch further intensified after an Airbus A320 software advisory triggered weekend delay, pushing flights past midnight – turning delays into cancellations once the new rest rules kicked in. More than 1,000 IndiGo flights have been cancelled in the first week of December, 2025. As a consequence, IndiGo, long seen as India’s benchmark for punctuality and operational scale, has been hit by its most severe disruption to date. Air tickets fare for domestic flights increased rapidly racing close to Rs. One lakh!. On 6th December, 2025, the Government reimposed airfare caps — for the first time after Covid — as the IndiGo crisis has sent ticket prices defying gravity on other airlines.
To tackle widespread flight cancellations by IndiGo, the Ministry of Civil Aviation announced on 5th December, 2025 that certain Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) enforced by the DGCA have been placed in abeyance with immediate effect. This move by DGCA aims to restore airline operations and relieve passenger distress.
The above developments clearly indicate that there were no proper planning and preparedness by the IndiGo to get swiftly adapted to the new guidelines issued by DGCA. This also indicates that the human resources, particularly the aircraft crew have been stretched beyond the optimum level and no additional recruitment of manpower was made to ensure smooth operations of the flights.
Regulators’ role when the markets are dominated by couple of players
This episode also raises some serious questions on role played by the sector specific regulator i.e., DGCA and Competition Commission of India. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation is the regulatory body in the field of Civil Aviation primarily dealing with safety issues. It is responsible for regulation of air transport services to/from/within India and for enforcement of civil air regulations, air safety and airworthiness standards. It also co-ordinates all regulatory functions with International Civil Aviation Organisation. Whereas, the Competition Act, 2002 prohibits anti-competitive agreements, abuse of dominant position by enterprises and regulates combinations (acquisition, acquiring of control and M&A), which causes or likely to cause an appreciable adverse effect on competition within India. It is the duty of the Competition Commission of India to eliminate practices having adverse effect on competition, promote and sustain competition, protect the interests of consumers and ensure freedom of trade in the markets of India. According to International Air Transport Association (IATA) data released in June 2025, IndiGo was India’s largest airline by seat capacity, holding 53.4% market share as of the end of 2024. Air India followed IndiGo at 12.1%, Air India Express at 8.6%, Vistara (now part of Air India Group) at 6.9%, and SpiceJet at 3.5%, among others. Whereas, the latest estimates indicate IndiGo commands 63-645%, Air India (combined Tata carriers) 26-28%, Akasa Air 4-5%, Spice Jet 2-3%, Alliance Air & others <1% market share.
Knowing pretty well that IndiGo is a very dominant player in the air transport sector DGCA should have closely monitored the operations of IndiGo, especially after the new Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) rules were introduced in July, 2025. Similarly, CCI should have taken proactive measures long ago to contain the dominant role and abuse of dominant position by IndiGo in the air transport sector. Having said that, one must admit that all the major players in air transport sector are incurring losses (including IndiGo) and major reforms are needed to attract a greater number of players who could operate profitably with healthy competition which would be beneficial to both the service providers and the customers as a win-win situation.
Interestingly both the civil aviation and telecom sectors which started with a bang post liberalisation and attracted several key players into their fold are now unfortunately left with only very few players. Uncontrolled, aggressive and cut throat competition in these two sectors led to the players incurring massive losses and forcing many players to exit. Huge capital expenditure that includes technology cost and its frequent upgradation cost are typical for these two sectors. As per Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) report, Reliance Jio is the leading telecom provider in India with a 50.44% market share. Bharti Airtel comes in second with a market share of 30.62%. Vodafone Idea and BSNL are the third and fourth leading telecom providers with a market share of 13.21% and 3.91% respectively. This market share includes combined representation of wired and wireless services (April, 2025).
Public service obligation vs financial sustainability
While the target market segment for civil aviation would remain confined to rich and to some extent upper middle-class population, telecom sector has the potential to scale up its volumes by reaching the masses. Political push for air connectivity often conflicts with airline economics and fare caps and route dispersal guidelines are affecting pricing freedom of the airlines. India’s telecom sector suffers from low revenues, high regulatory costs, and heavy capital requirements—making sustainability the core challenge. In a nutshell Balancing public service obligation with financial sustainability has become very challenging for the players in these two sectors. Like how IndiGo has claimed that some technical snag has led to the breakdown of their services, one cannot rule out the possibility of such instance getting repeated in telecom sector if the leading players- Reliance Jio or Bharti Airtel encounter similar “technical snags”. The economic costs and social costs of such “technical snags” would be enormous and its consequences could even be disastrous as it affects the mobility and communication of the people in the country.
There is also a danger of only a couple of players sticking on to these sectors down the line, making it a total monopoly or duopoly which will further worsen the situation, if the government remains a passive spectator.
From duopoly to oligopoly markets
No doubt that there are entry barriers in both aviation and telecom sectors due to huge capital investment and therefore all and sundry cannot enter these markets. Nevertheless, oligopoly market structure (i.e., more than two but few players) is ideal for these sectors. In the first two decades post liberalisation these sectors showed signs of oligopoly market but thereafter as mentioned earlier, few players had exited thereby enabling a couple of entities to become dominant players (i.e., IndiGo and Air India in aviation sector and Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel in telecom sector). The regulators in these two sectors should take up appropriate policy measures to create a suitable market climate for oligopoly and ensure that no single entity becomes a very dominant market player, to avoid a repeat of IndiGo type episode.
Therefore, the government should form an expert committee consisting of the market players, domain experts and government representatives to identify the core issues affecting these two sectors and prepare a road map with specific time frames for current, medium- and long-term solutions to make these two sectors more vibrant. It is a welcome move that the civil aviation ministry granted a “no-objection certificate” to regional airline alHind Air and FlyExpress very recently (post IndiGo episode) and gave initial clearance to these two airlines to begin operations. Let us hope that the government will pay attention to the issues raised in this article with the seriousness that it deserves and takes corrective action at an early date.
