IndiGo expects to maintain current level of operations post Feb 10 after FDTL relaxations lapse, say sources

IndiGo says that after February 10 2026 they think they can still fly IndiGo flights at about the same rate as now. This is because the DGCA has some rules in place for the pilot Flight Duty Time Limitation rules that are going to end.. Indigo does not think they will have to make a lot of big changes to the number of IndiGo flights they offer. They do not think they will have to cut back on IndiGo flights like they did before when they were, in a hurry.

The line is important because February 10 is like a test for IndiGo to see how well they can handle things. This is because something big happened in December 2025. There were problems with the crew schedules and rules about how tired the crew could be. This caused a lot of flights to be cancelled and delayed over India. It was a deal for IndiGo, which is the busiest airline, in India. February 10 has become a date to see if IndiGo can handle their operations without any problems. IndiGo is still working to make sure they do not have the issues they had in December 2025.

1) What is IndiGo operating at this time. Why the services of IndiGo are already reduced

As of mid-January 2026 IndiGo is operating over 2,200 flights every day. This includes, about 1,900 IndiGo flights and the rest are IndiGo international flights.

The number of flights which’s 2,200 flights is not what the company normally wants to do at its best. This 2,200 flights is actually extra. It is in addition, to the fact that the government has said the company must reduce its domestic schedule by 10 percent, which is the schedule that the government has already approved and this reduction will last until March.

So when people talk about IndiGo they say that IndiGo expects to keep things the way they’re now even after February 10. This means IndiGo will maintain the level, which is what IndiGo is trying to do.

Keep the present, already-trimmed network stable

We should try to avoid another round of cutting back on schedules when the relaxed rules come to an end. This will help with the transportation schedule reductions. The schedule reductions will be a problem if we do not plan ahead. So we need to think about the schedule reductions and how to avoid them.

We need to keep things steady and stable until the end of the Winter Schedule. The Winter Schedule is going to end on March 28. We have to make sure that the stability we have now continues all the way, to the end, which is March 28.

The people, in charge are keeping an eye on things. They will step in again if they think the network is getting too busy and does not have staff to handle it safely.

2) What is Flight Duty Time Limitations. Why it can make airlines cut flights. The Flight Duty Time Limitations is a rule that controls how long Flight Duty Time Limitations staff can work. This means airlines have to follow the Flight Duty Time Limitations rules. The Flight Duty Time Limitations is important because it helps keep people safe. If airlines do not follow the Flight Duty Time Limitations rules they might have to cut some flights.

FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitation) rules are the safety guardrails that cap:

how long pilots can be on duty,

People need to know how rest the human body must get. The amount of rest that people must get is really important, for the body. How rest do people really need to get to stay healthy? The human body must get a lot of rest.

So I was thinking about night flying and how it is treated. Night flying is something that people do not always understand. The way night flying is treated can be very different from day flying. I mean night flying is when people fly at night. This can be a little scary for some people. The treatment of night flying is something that’s very important to pilots and airlines. They have to make sure that night flying is safe for everyone, on the plane. The treatment of night flying is also something that is regulated by the government. They have rules and laws that pilots and airlines have to follow when it comes to night flying. Night flying is treated seriously by everyone involved.

How many landings or segments of a flight can be fitted into a duty period especially during the times when the crew is most likely to be really tired.

These rules are in place because fatigue is a safety problem for aviation. People who make the rules around the world think fatigue is just as serious as problems, with the planes themselves. This is because when the people flying the planes are tired they do not make decisions. They make decisions slowly and they make more mistakes when they are following the rules. Fatigue is a safety risk. That is why we have these rules.

The new rules that affect IndiGo the most are really tough on IndiGo. These rules are a deal, for IndiGo. The revised rules that hit IndiGo hardest will change things for IndiGo.

Indias revised FDTL framework is being rolled out in phases. The second phase is really focused on night operations. So what is considered night for the FDTL framework? It is from midnight to 6 am. There are rules about what you can do during this time. The FDTL framework has caps on activity from midnight, to 6 am.

IndiGo is in a spot because it has a lot of flights that take off and land very early in the morning. This means they have a lot of planes moving around between 12 and 6 am. The hour between 5 and 6 am is especially busy for IndiGo. They have a lot of departures and arrivals during this time. IndiGo runs a tight schedule, with many flights taking off and landing in the early morning hours.

When the rules get stricter airlines really only have two options they can use:

We should add pilots to the team. This way the same amount of flying can be shared among a crew. We can also build buffers, which means the same flying is spread across crew or

We need to change the schedule the parts that are really heavy at night so that we can still follow the rules, with the small group of crew members that we have. This will help the smaller crew pool remain compliant.

The December crisis that IndiGo faced was mostly about what happens when the schedule says one thing about the staff. The rules say something else. IndiGos schedule and rules just did not match up. This caused a lot of problems for IndiGo. The main issue was that the schedule for IndiGo was based on one idea of how many staff members would be available. The rules made it so that this idea was not realistic, for IndiGo.

3) What kind of relaxations did IndiGo. What is going to end on February 10 for IndiGo?

When things were not going well the DGCA helped IndiGo by giving it some permissions for a little while. The Indian Express said these permissions meant IndiGo did not have to follow some rules, such, as:

the revised “night” definition, and

The new rule is that there is a limit on the number of times pilots can land during their work hours if those hours go into the night. This change really limits the number of flights pilots can do in one day when they have to work at night. The stricter cap on landings, for duty periods that touch the night window is a deal. It means pilots cannot fly many times as they used to when they have to work during the night.

The relaxations are going to stop on February 10 2026.

So February 10 is a day for IndiGo. This is when IndiGo must show that it can work safely and reliably on its own. It has to do this without any help. This means IndiGo has to have a schedule for its staff and some extra time, in case things go wrong. All of this has to meet the rules that have been put in place for IndiGo.

4) The reason regulators are looking at this situation as a risk to the ecosystem is that it is not just a problem for one airline it is a problem for the airline industry, as a whole and that is why regulators are treating this like an ecosystem risk, not just something that affects one airline. The airline industry is very connected. When something goes wrong with one airline it can affect many other airlines and the people who work with them which is why regulators are taking this very seriously and treating it as an ecosystem risk.

IndiGo is an airline and you cannot just ignore it. It has a lot of control over the market, in India two thirds of it as the Indian Express said. So when IndiGo has problems everything else is affected too: the airports get crowded people have to wait in lines they miss their flights the help desks are packed the prices of tickets go up and other airlines are also late because of it. IndiGo is a part of the system and when it has issues the whole system feels it.

In the beginning of December something big happened with IndiGo flights. A lot of IndiGos flights were cancelled. This was a big problem. The people in charge said it was a bad moment, for the national civil aviation system. It was like the whole system was going to fall apart. IndiGo flights were the issue here. The cancellation of many IndiGo flights caused a lot of trouble.

That is why now officials are described as staying ready to make the schedule even better if it is needed. They want to make changes to the schedule if that is what is required. Officials are staying ready to do this to the schedule.

The DGCA is also keeping an eye on things like how many crew members are available and how they are scheduled to work, at least until February 10. They are watching the DGCA closely to make sure everything runs smoothly. The DGCA is being monitored by them.

5) IndiGo’s plan to hold the line after Feb 10: hiring, upgrades, buffers

People who know about IndiGo and this is what the Indian Express says think that the airline is sure of itself because of three things it is doing to operate :

A) Pilot hiring + onboarding pipeline

People are saying that the airline is doing a job of finding and training new pilots. They think the airline will have pilots by early February or maybe the middle of the month. This is good because the airline needs to have all the pilots on board by February 10. The pilot hiring process is going well. The airline is, on track to meet the February 10 deadline. The airline will have all the pilots they need by then which’s a big relief. The pilot hiring and training process is really robust so the airline is confident that they will meet the deadline.

B) Accelerating command upgrades

IndiGo is speeding up the process of giving promotions to officers so they can become captains. This is important because the number of captains can cause big problems. You can have a lot of officers but if you do not have enough captains it can still mess up the whole schedule of IndiGo flights. The captains are really important for IndiGo to run things smoothly.

C) Building “buffers” / bench strength

The people who make the rules for airlines keep talking about something called a buffer. This buffer is like having pilots and some extra time in the schedule. It helps when pilots get sick or need to take time off. It also helps when there are problems, with the planes or the weather is bad. This way the airline does not have to cancel a lot of flights at the time. IndiGo has told the regulators times that they are making sure they have enough extra pilots and time in the schedule. They want to make sure they can handle problems without canceling a lot of flights. IndiGo is building these buffers. Making their schedule more flexible.

6) What happens if the plan does not work out: the “night flights” pressure valve. This is what I want to know about the plan. If the plan falls short then what. I am talking about the plan and the “night flights” pressure valve that is part of the plan.

People who actually like what IndiGo is doing still think they should have a way out. IndiGos plan is not set in stone even the people who support IndiGo think that IndiGo should keep one option open in case IndiGo needs it.

If IndiGo does not have staff or buffers by February 10 IndiGo may make some changes to the IndiGo network. This could mean IndiGo will reduce the number of night flights that IndiGo operates. The goal is to make sure IndiGo has a schedule, for its employees so IndiGo can handle things better.

This is the most likely “surgical” cut because:

Night duties are really tough because that is when the rules about being tired have the impact, on the night duties. The night duties are very hard to do when you are feeling tired so the fatigue rules affect the night duties a lot.

The new definition makes the night time period longer. It now includes 6 hours from midnight to 6 in the morning. The night time is what we are talking about here. It is now midnight, to 6 am.

The thing about IndiGo is that it is really focused, on this one place IndiGo has a lot of stuff going on there.

The Indian Express report says something. It says the airline will not ask for time to meet the rules. The airline is unlikely to ask for an extension of exemptions. The Indian Express report makes this clear, about the airline.

This is really important because if they extend it people will immediately ask questions. They will want to know why the carrier did not manage the transition on time. They will also want to know if the carriers business model relies on exceptions, from the rules. The carriers business model is what people will be looking at.

7) The enforcement backdrop: ₹22.20 crore penalty + a ₹50 crore “reform assurance” bank guarantee

This story is taking place in a time when rules are being enforced strictly. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation or DGCA for short has taken a step by imposing a huge fine on an airline. The fine is twenty two point two crore rupees, which’s the biggest penalty the DGCA has ever given to an airline. The DGCA is being very serious about this. That is why they are imposing such a big fine, on the airline.

The penalty was set up in a way. This is what it looked like.

* The penalty had some rules that people had to follow.

The people who made the penalty wanted to make sure it was fair.

The penalty was structured with these rules so that everyone knew what to expect from the penalty.

The way the penalty was structured is important to understand how the penalty worked.

The penalty had an impact, on people and the way the penalty was structured made a big difference.

The government and the Press Information Bureau release says that this total included:

one-time systemic penalties, and

There is a part of the problem that is connected to the fact that the rules were not followed for a long time, which is 68 days from December 5 2025 to February 10 2026. The Indian rupee amount for this is calculated at ₹30 lakh per day. So when you add all these days up it comes to ₹20.40 crore. The rest of the rupee amount is added to this to make the total ₹22.20 crore, for non-compliance of the rules specifically the non-compliance of the rules.

The bigger stick: ISRAS (IndiGo Systemic Reform Assurance Scheme)

The airline IndiGo has to pay a fine. Besides that IndiGo also has to give a bank guarantee of ₹50 crore to the DGCA. The DGCA will slowly release this money as IndiGo makes changes that the DGCA wants. The DGCA has a plan called ISRAS to check if IndiGo is making these changes.

The PIB text talks, about the PIB and its four main reform areas these are called PIB pillars, including:

leadership and governance,

manpower planning / rostering / fatigue-risk management,

digital systems and operational resilience, and

board-level oversight with sustained compliance,

with different time windows (months) and amounts linked to certifications and sustained adherence.

Why this matters for Feb 10

A normal fine is something that punishes things that happened in the past. This means that when someone does something they have to pay for what they did even if it was a long time ago. A fine is like a penalty, for the things that the person did in the past.

A bank guarantee that is tied to verified milestones is made to make sure IndiGo does things differently. This means that IndiGos plan, after February 10 is not something they hope will work. The bank guarantee is tied to IndiGos milestones. This is done to make sure they follow the rules. IndiGos plan is now being checked closely to make sure it is good enough.

Reuters also said that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation gave warnings to the executives at the airline. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation also took some steps to fix the problems they found during the investigation of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

8) I am wondering if IndiGo will really keep running the way it’s now, after February 10. Will IndiGo be able to maintain its operations after February 10 that is the question. I want to know what will happen to IndiGo after February 10.

There are two ways to look at what IndiGo says about being able to maintain things. IndiGo says they can maintain this and people can understand it in two ways when IndiGo talks about maintaining something.

The optimistic (and plausible) reading

The current schedule of IndiGo has been reduced by 10 percent until March. This gives IndiGo some time to figure things out and make any necessary changes, to the schedule of IndiGo.

When you are running an operation hiring new people and giving your commanders more authority can really make a difference in how many crew members you have available, in just a few weeks. Hiring and command upgrades can make this happen. They can change the number of crew members you have in an amount of time like a few weeks.

The airline needs to make its standby system really strong and stop trying to be too perfect. If the airline does this it can have a schedule that’s not so tight and it will be a lot more reliable. The airline can run a schedule that’s a little more relaxed and still get people where they need to go on time. This way the airline can make sure that flights are not delayed much and people will be happier, with the airline. The airline should focus on making its standby system strong. This will help the airline to be more reliable.

The cautious reading (why regulators are still on alert)

The thing about networks that have a lot of traffic at night is that they can be really tough to rebalance, without affecting the people who use them. Night-heavy networks are a challenge because you have to make changes that will not hurt the passengers.

If the new staff members arrive late things can get messy. They need to do things like training and background checks. They also need to learn about the base and the routes they will be working on. Even if the schedule looks good on paper it can still cause problems when things do not go as planned. The staffing additions can really affect how well the schedule works in the world when there are irregular operations and the schedule can crack under the pressure of the staffing additions.

IndiGo is a big deal so if they make a tiny mistake it can cause a lot of problems all over the country. This is because IndiGo has such a presence, that even a small error can have a huge impact and create chaos nationwide with IndiGo being, at the center of it all.

That is why you see the two tracks when it comes to reporting: the company is doing one thing and the people are doing something else with the information from the reporting. The two parallel tracks in reporting are very clear. You can see that the two parallel tracks, in reporting are happening at the time.

People, at IndiGo say that they think IndiGo can keep doing what it is doing now. IndiGo is not going to change the way it is working. IndiGo will maintain the levels of IndiGo.

Coverage: The person says that even after February 10 the company may still have to cut more jobs if they do not get exemptions and the operation cannot follow the rules.

It is possible that two things can happen at the time: IndiGo can try to keep everything under control and at the same time regulators and other people who are watching can have a backup plan ready. IndiGo can still try to hold the line. Regulators and outside observers will keep a contingency plan ready, for IndiGo.

9) So what do passengers need to know about traveling from now until March? Passengers should expect some changes. Passengers will see that things are a bit different. The experience, for passengers will not be the same as it was before. For passengers there are a things to keep in mind between now and late March. Passengers need to be prepared for these changes.

If you are a traveler especially when you are traveling in India from one city, to another the things that matter to you are:

A) Fewer surprises than December—but some “network tuning” is still possible

The airline is being really careful now big cancellations like what happened in early December are not likely to happen again. This is because the airline is already being watched closely and they are trying to avoid problems. The whole system is focused on making sure that week in December does not happen again. The airline is operating in a controlled way, which means large sudden mass cancellations of flights, like early December are less likely.

The thing that is most likely to work if there are problems with people following the rules is making some changes to the flight schedule. This is especially true for flights that’re very late at night or very early, in the morning. Targeted reshuffles of these night and very early flights remain the best way to deal with any issues that come up.

B) If cuts happen they will probably be what people call a “night rationalisation” which’s when cuts are made at night. This means that the cuts to things, like services will be made when it is dark and most people are sleeping. The cuts will likely be a “night rationalisation” because that is when they can be done without much fuss. So the cuts will be a “night rationalisation”. People might not even notice they are happening until the next day.

People who are traveling on red-eye flights need to keep an eye on their flight information, which is called a PNR around mid February. They should check the updates for their red-eye flights closely during this time. This is important for travelers, on red-eye flights to do.

C) Reliability is now a regulatory priority, not just a brand promise

With penalties, bank guarantees, and milestone-linked verification, IndiGo’s operational reliability has become an explicit compliance issue, not just a customer satisfaction metric.

10) The main thing to understand about this situation is that IndiGo is being forced to change its approach. Now IndiGo is all about using its resources to the maximum.. The company is being pushed to focus on something new: making sure its operations are strong and resilient. This means IndiGo needs to think about resilience rather than just trying to use everything to its maximum capacity. The goal for IndiGo is to be more resilient in its operations. That is a big change from just trying to get the most out of everything. IndiGo is shifting its focus to resilience, which is a big deal, for the company.

So the main thing that people in charge are saying is that the problem happened because the machine was being run perfectly and there was no extra space for when things do not go as planned. The breakdown was caused by this. Also because there were not enough safety nets. They were running the machine too tight and did not leave any room, for the things that can go wrong in real life. The machine was being over-optimised.

This is not something that only happens with IndiGo. All low-cost carriers try to keep their planes in the air much as possible. The thing is, a big network like IndiGos cannot run on a tight schedule like a small new company and still be strong when the rules, about pilot fatigue get tougher and when a lot of people want to fly in India.

The question we have for February 10 is not just about whether IndiGo will cut flights. It is really, about IndiGo. What IndiGo will do with its flights. Will IndiGo actually cut some of its flights or not that is what we are waiting to find out about IndiGo.

Can IndiGos operating model change to meet the new fatigue rules without causing problems again? IndiGo has to deal with these fatigue rules and make sure their operating model works with them. The question is can IndiGo do this without having to make changes all the time. IndiGo needs to make their operating model flexible so it can work with the fatigue rules.

The main thing is that IndiGos operating model has to be able to adapt to these fatigue rules so that it does not cause any problems, for IndiGo. IndiGo has to find a way to make their operating model work smoothly with the new rules. This is important for IndiGo to keep running. IndiGos operating model and the fatigue rules have to work.

The airline says they can do this. They will hire people upgrade things and add help. This way they can keep the schedule the same until March 28. The airline wants to keep the schedule stable until then.

Regulators are watching, with tools already deployed that go beyond fines into enforced reform.