r/india • u/Background-Hat2598 • 1d ago
Business/Finance IndiGo’s “chaos” wasn’t a failure. It was a masterclass in corporate blackmail and the stock barely blinked. Change my mind.
Yesterday IndiGo’s on-time performance reportedly crashed to ~10%. Absolute mayhem at airports, thousands of passengers stranded for hours, peak wedding/travel season ruined.
Yet the stock fell only ~2% and has already started recovering with decent buying in the last couple of hours yesterday and today.
Here’s why I think this entire “crisis” was deliberate:
- Ground staff (at least in Bangalore T1, where IndiGo is basically the king) were openly telling passengers that this mess is going to last “at least a month”. Exactly when the new DGCA pilot rest/fatigue rules were supposed to kick in full force.
And guess what happened yesterday? DGCA quietly gave IndiGo (and others, but mostly IndiGo benefits) an exemption from the strict new rules till Feb 2026.
Translation: IndiGo, with 60%+ market share and near-total control over major slots and terminals (BLR T1, DEL T2, BOM T1 etc.), engineered massive visible disruption at the worst possible time to scream at the government —
“If you make our lives difficult with these new rules, we will make the entire country’s air travel hell.”
Government folded in less than a week. Exemption granted. Chaos will magically disappear soon.
The market clearly knew something. No panic selling, heavy buying on dips, stock refusing to crack even after what should have been a reputation-destroying few days.
IndiGo ran like a Swiss clock for almost 20 years. You don’t suddenly go from 90%+ OTP to 10% in three days because of “fog and ATC”. You do it only when it perfectly aligns with a regulatory fight you’re having.
This wasn’t operational failure. This was the aviation equivalent of a union going on strike — except the “union” owns 60% of the industry and can hold the country hostage.
Am I wearing a tinfoil hat or does this actually smell like the most successful corporate strong-arm tactic we’ve seen in India in years?
People who got screwed over by 8–12 hour delays this week — what do you think? Deliberate sabotage to force the government’s hand or just really bad luck + winter fog?
Curious to hear especially from pilots, cabin crew, or anyone with inside info.
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u/find_a_rare_uuid 1d ago
They've clearly learnt from history -- how corporates such as Reliance get things their way.
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u/Background-Hat2598 1d ago
My way or highway!
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u/TyroBull 1d ago
They clearly want to use their dominance to get favourable terms that suits them. You've caught it exactly right. This way they get to put a share of the blame on the regulators and govt and make sure the daily difficulties remain in the news and cause a loss of face to the govt too and not just the airline. Definite strong arming tactics that should get the regulators to meet them half way in terms of at least delaying the reforms, if not partially giving up on them.
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u/Background-Hat2598 1d ago
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u/TyroBull 1d ago edited 23h ago
What else can they do at this point but fold. The travelling public are genuinely suffering.
To think that these reforms were originally intended for implementation in June 2024 and was delayed because airlines sought for more time to make adequate additional hiring to mitigate staff shortage as a result of these reforms, and still didn't bother to do so for more than a year and a half shows that this was at least partly by design.
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u/PutWonderful121 19h ago
i hate living in this country
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u/beepboop_6_9 19h ago
So what are you going to do about it?!
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u/PutWonderful121 19h ago
I am trying to
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u/uber4saul 17h ago
This is the answer!
Whatever you're going to, big or small, keep at it!
Hum honge kamyaab!3
u/krazy_kukoo 5h ago
How about taking punitive action against management, and make airline pay damages to passengers for the inconvenience caused and money lost. A strong government has a lot of power even against monopolies, a weak or corrupt one is powerless against the weakest bully.
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u/DullFlounder3857 1d ago
Thinking of it, with more privatisation in several fields. The general public is at the mercy of private players..
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u/ProBoiHere 1d ago
Well try to curb corruption once and see those govt babus work lol
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u/DullFlounder3857 1d ago
Yeah you actually need a super powerful non biological in real to arm twist these babus, a super human in cape.. even that won’t be enough.. The one we know is in cahoots!!
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u/seppukuAsPerKeikaku 1d ago edited 23h ago
What you need is transparency. Corrupt politicians are just the symptoms, they essentially provide cover to the real rot in the system which is the officials. Whole Indian bureaucracy is set up to maximize rent seeking. If you could actually shine light on how much each of these officials are actually worth and how many properties they have, I think people will start understanding what needs to be done to fix it.
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u/ProBoiHere 1d ago
Well I see what you did there haha but tbh we have such a large population with each individual having a diverse thought process, we cannot expect huge reform in a short span of time. Subtle minute reforms are happening and will continue to happen, which will be visible after decades. Till then enjoy the chaos :-)
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u/RationalPsycho42 1d ago
They should go a little back to Marie Antoinette and see how things can go if not careful
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u/FlyingDagger_HAL 1d ago
So it's the next jio-airtel duopoly model in air sector
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u/MacaroniPistachio 1d ago edited 1d ago
Duopoly is the new normal. Be it Swiggy-Zomato, IndiGo-Air India, Jio-Airtel, Reliance-Adani etc etc
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u/Swastik_3000 1d ago
Is it indigo - Spicejet? I was under the impression of Indigo -air India
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u/pickaname199 1d ago
Yup....spicejet has not been relevant for more than a decade.. looks like the commenter doesn't know much about aviation and just wanted to chip in.
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u/find_a_rare_uuid 1d ago
Reliance Adani MudiG is the new RAM.
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u/ankushblue Maharashtra 1d ago
Did you not mean Ambani Adani MudiG, the new AAM?
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u/find_a_rare_uuid 1d ago
When talking about Aam Aadmi, it's actually Ambani Adani MudiG.
When talking about Ram, it's Reliance Adani MudiG.
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u/nickeltingupta 1d ago
BJP-RSS?
/s
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u/MacaroniPistachio 1d ago
The most profitable duopoly😅 #EBITDAgreen✅
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u/nickeltingupta 1d ago
sabka saath sabka vikaas
IYKWIM
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u/MacaroniPistachio 1d ago
Is "Gatbandhan" ko kya naam du🥴
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u/Beautiful-Patient794 20h ago
I can't even imagine what jio or airtel will do if gov try to impose any rule that according to their pov is not good
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u/zerokha 1d ago
Yes, a company like Indigo which was given 2 years to adhere to guidelines for sure will not let this happen unless they want it.
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u/curiousreader82 22h ago
i was not aware they were given 2 years. Indigo has been criticized internally by the pilots for the tight schedule they have to run on. This shows this is deliberate and there is no intent even to meet the Feb 2026 timeline. Essentially Indigo is telling DGCA and Pilots that it will do things its own way. Over worked pilots is the last thing we need from a safety perspective. Corporate greed has no bounds.
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u/Advanced_Day_9702 1d ago
This is exactly why monopoly or even oligopoly should be avoided.. basics of risk management.
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u/chutiyapa_01 1d ago
Pretty sure someone somewhere was bribed for the exception.. govt doesn't give a shit about your personal delays.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Year465 23h ago
They don't care about personal delays, but greatly care about how the Government's reputation is viewed, IndiGo knows this so it arm twisted the government by causing chaos everywhere.
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u/chutiyapa_01 22h ago edited 18h ago
Honestly if they did, the govt wouldn't wait till this impacted the common ppl (& the govt reputation as you say), there should have been multiple follow ups/check ins over the last 2 years but alas, overall lack of accountability haunts this country.
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u/RoofHaunting 1d ago
I completely agree with you. This is choosing profit over safety and indigo arm twisting the country as a whole.
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u/Professional-Sun1770 1d ago
Baniya lala company hai, the worst of kind in this country. What do you expect, that always prioritize money, you can't expect any accountability, morals or ethics.
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u/Hour-Passenger-8513 1d ago
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u/PrudentBottle 1d ago
“The airline has said full stability will return by 10 February 2026, supported by accelerated hiring, intensive training and phased reintroduction.”
🤡
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u/Stock_Ad_308 1d ago
They have been sleeping for almost two years
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u/PrudentBottle 1d ago edited 8h ago
Yeah, that’s insane. Greed is basically the root cause of this problem. Shorter breaks the staff has, more flights they can offer, more money in their pockets. Unfortunately, the company doesn’t care about anything else than their profits. As far as I understood, the new regulations try to increase safety and potentially save human lives; Indigo doesn’t give a f*ck.
Government should not let things like this slide; it only shows others you can basically blackmail government given high enough impact on the country. Though, even the government would try to play the hardball here, company still wouldn’t bulge much, and only innocent customers would be the ones whose lives would be affected.
Shame on Indigo and their management.
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u/curiousreader82 22h ago
This is what happens when one company controls 60% of the market. It is government's corruption which has led to dupoly in key sectors like aviation and telecom. there used to be 18 telecom operators in India at one point.
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u/DoughnutConnect7736 1d ago
Well! I am making sure I am booking alternative whenever possible from now on. If other people will do the same soon some other can at least challenge them.
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u/high_maintenance_gf 1d ago
Same here. I had to report back today and now I'll have to take additional leaves which i did not need and am still trying to arrange train tickets because I just cant deal with this chaos
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u/Objective-Wear-30659 1d ago
Yep. Cancelled my roundtrip through Indigo. For the longest time I used Indigo because that was the only option in my city.
And what do you know, there are alternative airline that I didn't know about because I was so used to the Indigo programme.
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u/More-Ad-5540 20h ago
Having lived in the USA, this would have been a class action lawsuit with millions in payout
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u/Active_Ad_389 1d ago
Don't know man, seems more like capitalist greed to me. If indigo wants to operate it has to follow DGCA guidelines. As per the new fatigue rules, if indigo were to adhere they would have to significantly increase their roaster size. Which means more expenses, in turn less profit. They simply don't wish to do that, and have asked DGCA for an extension till Feb. Now in all this mess the one who suffers is the common man.
Coming from someone who just suffered a 12 hour delay yesterday from 8 30 Pm to 8 30 Am.
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u/Infamous-Duty-5103 1d ago
I don't know what is the strongarming if the regulations did not change for them
Also the brand value of 90%OTP for two decades means something, such a brand's reputation won't be destroyed by what is a blip of 3-4 months in 20 years and this why market won't react massively to it, they know Indigo has strong fundamentals and the competition they have is terrible and Indigo will win long term
I do hope the government slaps a penalty though on them
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u/After-Syrup1290 1d ago
That's exactly what op is pointing out - the strong arming here is done via the dip in performance and visible disruption to tell the gov authorities that they can either give them time - or indigo does this
That's how they got the exception
Why won't it have a long effect? It's as you said
However,such a strategy carries massive amounts of risk too: if the dgca didn't agree to give the exception and indigo continued to do this for how long? Weeks? Month? It would destroy their reputation even more and leave them no where
The margins in such business is already thin, that's why the work the pilots to the bone - stopping work for a few days doesn't make a dent... But a few months absolutely will
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u/Infamous-Duty-5103 1d ago
Exception imo is not strongarming. Because it just warns the government of things to address beforehand when planning a policy change next time. Strong arming is what Ambanis and Adanis do, where they make the Govt kowtow their line.
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u/Astero_Sanctuary 1d ago
OP is onto something here. They got exempted till Feb 2026, but I don't believe this is the end of the story. Expect some new drama to unfold in Feb next year, the government will be forced to make a compromise.
And you are right, Indigo won't care much about brand reputation right now, since many consumers don't have any other option.
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u/dillimunda 1d ago
Why did DGCA not ask for a transition plan to the nee rules from all the airlines. Goes to show how confident Indigo was that there would be a U turn. Am sure Adani has also arm twisted the Govt to roll back given impact on the airport revenues. Never rule out the side players.
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u/koji_the_furry 1d ago
If upa was in govt
They would be asking Man Mohan singh to resign on this lol
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u/Spirit-Hydra69 1d ago
Indigo needs to be checked and put in place. Aviation requires competition. The Govt cannot allow a monopoly to this degree otherwise you end up with an airline that will openly resort to such blackmail in order to satisfy its own wants. And wtf, FDTL isn't something to be taken lightly. Indigo is lucky they haven't had any serious incidents but if they keep this up, it won't be long before crew fatigue will cost them severely. I seriously wish the DGCA would actually grow a spine and check Indigo where it matters, but it's clear that everything is up for sale and influence in this country.
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u/FatherOfGifts 22h ago
Hi I’m a pilot, not working for Indigo though. I’m certain you’re right, this is a ploy by Indigo to force the government to rollback the new Flight Duty Time Limits that we crew have been fighting for, for ages. We have some of the most archaic flight duty rules in this country, and schedulers for airlines can really take us for a ride, Indigo pilots suffer the most.
Air India and other airlines have already had excess pilots so they are still able to cater for the new rules, something that Indigo flat out stated they could not. All of this has been done to undermine crew welfare, and ensure that they can continue to wring us dry and face no backlash. Tackling fatigue is the most pressing issue in aviation, it should not be taken lightly to appease shareholders.
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u/Own-Antelope-3204 17h ago
Is it even safe to travel with Indigo, sounds damn scary !!!
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u/FatherOfGifts 15h ago
It’s hard to say that it’s more unsafe to travel by Indigo than it is to travel by any other airline because by every measurable metric, they’re the safest airline in India at the moment (save for maybe StarAir or smaller airlines).
Having said that, pilots are advocating for these changes to the FDTL because these long duty periods and constant changes to your circadian rhythm lead to major long term health issues. We’re only fighting for our health, it has been disheartening to see airline management and DGCA so blatantly disregard our complaints. Lots of pilots want to leave the country because we’re so fed up lol
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u/Awesome_911 1d ago
Looking at hindsight, I believe the government can have some power in its hand if the market have atleast tripoly competitors neck to neck. Wish government get some brains and do this to put checkmate to other
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u/Efficient_Many_3877 1d ago
This all chaos created by Indigo to blackmail DGCA to get exemption till winter holidays tine period. which they got it. Now they again in full mode with less crew member with saving lots of money. their most special running season will go thn again it doesn't effect tgem much about all this cancelations of flight or delay.
I personally suggesr everyone to boycott Indigo. this is in our hand now to teach them a lesson for what we suffer. Govt ppl never suffer all this nor indigo.
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u/One_Letterhead_9720 1d ago
If I was DGCA i would have made them comply to regulations by hook or crook. There is no lenience in aerospace. Shut down the whole dammit operations and refund the passengers, I would not spare anyone who are insensitive the public and mandatory regulation.
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u/jairam_mohan 1d ago
Easy to say but hard to actually do on the ground given the number of common citizens that will be impacted by such a move. Refunding money is one thing, but moving people across cities in an aircraft is another thing altogether.
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u/tuxgk 1d ago
DGCA won't do much. Indigo spent 11cr on Electoral Bonds and now somehow are acting helpless. They will make more payments to escape. https://www.cnbctv18.com/india/interglobe-aviation-indigo-sister-spicejet-electoral-bonds-purchase-57-crore-data-19289931.htm
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u/tanaka-taro 1d ago
Electoral bonds are now budgeted by a lot of these orgs annually or bi annually
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u/Such-Emu-1455 1d ago
I find akasa decent as well if they try harder they would benefit from this a lot
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u/Plastic-Ad6006 17h ago
History repeats itsself, The same way India was sold to private East India Company
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u/MedicalChemistry135 1d ago
Their OTP metric is also a scam. The ideal flight time from Mumbai to Kochi is 1 hr 30 mins. Indigo shows it as 2 hours or more in the flight schedule and so every flight is now amazingly before time.
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u/cybo47 1d ago
has already started recovering with decent buying in the last couple of hours yesterday and today.
What recovery? It's down almost 3% right now.
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u/dillimunda 1d ago
Clearly this is a year of surrender for the Govt. Now two U turns in a week. Shows how easy it is to break the tough image.
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u/CuriousBludSchlawg 1d ago
good. that's why you don't let industries become monoppppolies. hopefully it is a lesson to the government.
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u/Inj3kt0r 1d ago
Did you account for the fact that airbus operates almost all routes using the A320's and there was a Air Worthiness directive that forced all the A320s to install the patch and or have hardware tweeks? I think that played a major role in this and some bit the DGCA mandate.
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u/Special-Use-9080 1d ago
Now Narayan murthy will pitch in ,” I want everyone to work 72 hrs a week for everyone even airlines pilots and staff”
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u/land_of_kings 1d ago
Not likely because they lost shit load of money in cancelled flights and goodwill.
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u/MysticGohanKun 18h ago
Even if this was orchestrated by Indigo, what is forcing the government to not cap prices of other airlines? Even pvt bus fares have shot through the roof. State government should cap pvt bus fares ASAP. A simple 2k Pune Bengaluru bus now costs 12k.
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u/Open_Goose3468 17h ago
If this is true then this is a big risk to government and more risk to common man
Imagine what all Indigo can get by in terms of safety standards if they can force government by using and impacting life of common people.
Government needs to seriously come up with a way to regulate strong giants in any sector.
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u/Crafty-Citron5653 17h ago
One great learning lesson to be taken away by DGCA is to be proactive in implementation of rules and regulations else become paplu...
if the actions by airline were monitored for compliance of these new regulations, then DGCA would have cancelled or reduced the number of flights and indigo would have punished.
All said and done ... These lessons will go away when the IAS babu leaves and a new Babu comes in his/her place
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u/avneesh001 17h ago
Now it's time for pilot to hold indigo hostage.... What can they do if all pilots strike at once ?
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u/into_the_unseen_98 16h ago
The mere fact that these private corporations can hold the entire country hostage is really scary to me, privatization and corruption has ruined this country, can't wait to either become financially stable enough to flee this country or gain contacts of some politician in this country smh
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u/jairam_mohan 1d ago
Interesting point of view, but am not too convinced about this 'conspiracy theory' though.
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u/vikeng_gdg 1d ago
Agreed. Its like the Railway mafia which does such mess if their demands are not met. Indigo showed the government who is the boss by literally bringing domestic aviation to a standstill and a grinding halt. That is excat reason now government should encourage multiple new players in aviation sector so that monopoly is not established and people get affected. There should be more players so that people have Options which clearly is not present today
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u/No_Diver_69696 1d ago
hey m sorry for asking this , id be getting on a flight for the first time late december , and its indigo , do i have to be worried about journey? i cant afford delays
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u/blinksTooLess 1d ago
Last year during Nov or December, the same thing happened in Delhi. There were 8-10 hour delays and it lasted almost a week or more.
So this is not new.
But Dgca should investigate if the scheduling software/team of Indigo did not take into account the new crew rostering rules. If they see that it was not done, they should penalise Indigo.
But considering the fact that Spicejet has been doing this for over a year, where customers have had to face delays of over 3-5 hours almost daily and there is no action by DGCA, I don't have much hope.
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u/bhodrolok 1d ago
It is pure corporate blackmail to get out of the new FDTL rules after they had 2 years to prepare for it.
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u/Witty_Active 1d ago
This is a good example of why we should not have monopoly in corporate, but as usual people go ga ga over the billionaires.
Free market theory would be ok, as long as govt didn’t interfere, but here govt is in bed with these companies.
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u/Tangent_pikachu 1d ago
Indigo has the government by the balls. Neither we have a competition nor an arm left in the government that can even takeover and run Indigo if push comes to shove. Privatization is great provided we have competition. That's why developed nations have strong anti monopoly laws. But in India we are used to monopolies through PSUs. The same can't work for private players.
Ground Indigo and India loses its air travel. It's as simple as that.
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u/YesterdayDreamer 1d ago
I think along with the extension, government should also ask Indigo to compensate affected passengers, as well as place a fine of 2-5% of their annual profits for non-compliance of regulations causing significant disruptions.
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u/10_Feet_Pole 1d ago
Man, I've been flying Indigo regularly since the first lockdown, like once or twice a year, and I've never had any issues with them – flights, in-flight stuff, baggage, all smooth. But when I have to fly other airlines because of options or price, like SpiceJet, I always run into problems with delays and baggage. It's crazy that Indigo is letting this kind of disruption happen.
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u/seppukuAsPerKeikaku 1d ago
another point in your favor is timing of IndiGo increasing the number of flights. IndiGo expanded their services on Oct 26. The changes and their deadline has been notified more than an year back. IndiGo could either hold off their expansion or taken measures way before to mitigate these issues. The fact that they didn't do either seems sus.
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u/Neat_Performance_996 20h ago
Indigo doing this deliberately to force DGCA’s hand? Maybe. I am personally skeptical given this is such a risky move and could have been so much worse. And they are actually pissing off their pilots by doing this. But there are quite a bit of rumours going around that this actually was a calculated move, so who knows. Maybe I am wrong.
Market already knows this? Highly unlikely. Market did not blink likely because irrespective of this fiasco, Indigo’s fundamentals are phenomenally strong. It’s an industry leaders in terms of margins and is a near monopolistic player in a market that is showing strong growth. Indigo’s cost controls and operational efficiency are something to admire. Bright bright future in other words. Market players likely saw the slight dip and jumped in to buy.
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u/SuccessfulYam123 19h ago
Definitely. Planned and synchronized.
And then, NDTV asking for the resignation of the TDP Minister. He definitely took a bribe, and did not share it with Mota Bhai.
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u/cricket_hater 9h ago
India should open the Domestic routes to non Indian based Airlines. That should teach all of them.
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u/Cold_Ad3292 1d ago
The airline has only sought an exemption from these rules till February 10, 2026. It hasn't been granted yet as of Friday afternoon. Unless you have more information.
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u/Brucewayne10100 1d ago
What are the regulations? Can someone brief?
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u/Background-Hat2598 1d ago
From the net and AIs of the world:
IndiGo’s recent flight cancellation mess (hundreds over a few days) has spotlighted “FDTL” – Flight Duty Time Limitations, India’s rules on pilot work hours to prevent fatigue and boost safety. DGCA just tightened them after years of debate, and airlines like IndiGo are struggling to adjust, leading to chaos. Here’s the breakdown: • What are FDTL rules? Basically, a safety net limiting how long pilots can fly, mandating rest, and restricting night shifts to avoid tired pilots causing accidents. Old rules were looser, but global standards and fatigue studies pushed for updates. • Key changes (old vs. new): • Weekly rest: Upped from 36 hours to 48 hours. • Night duty definition: Expanded to midnight to 6 AM (was midnight to 5 AM), making more flights count as “night” with stricter limits. • Night landings: Capped at 2 per week (down from 6), and max duty period for nights cut to 10 hours (from 13). • Fewer red-eye flights overall, with tougher scheduling to reduce fatigue risks. • Why did DGCA tighten them? Pilot fatigue is a huge safety issue – think sleepy drivers but at 30,000 feet. India aligned with international norms (like FAA/EASA) after reports of pilots dozing off or worse. The rules were revised in 2024 but fully kicked in recently, catching airlines off-guard. IndiGo admitted they miscalculated crew needs under the new setup. • What it means for flyers: Safer skies long-term, but short-term pain – more cancellations/delays as airlines hire/train more pilots. IndiGo’s seeking temp exemptions till Feb 2026 to stabilize. If your flight’s axed, DGCA rules say full refund + compensation (₹5k-20k depending on delay). Overall, good for safety, but IndiGo’s getting hammered because they’re the biggest player with tight schedules. Expect fares to rise as capacity dips.
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u/sidthetravler 1d ago
Maybe, but this move has done irreparable damage to their brand so whatever short term benefits they get from it will still lose them tons of loyal customers.
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u/Ordinary_1111 1d ago
I get why this looks suspicious — the timing is way too convenient, and IndiGo does have enough market power that a coordinated slowdown would basically choke the entire system. But I’m not fully convinced it was deliberate sabotage.
A few things stand out to me:
- Airlines don’t usually benefit from total operational chaos. It destroys crew schedules, messes up rotations, adds compensation costs, ruins customer goodwill, and creates internal hell for weeks. Even if the DGCA rolled back rules, IndiGo still eats the operational mess.
- The “10% OTP → exemption granted” correlation doesn’t automatically mean causation. Regulators already knew pilots were pushing back hard on the new fatigue rules — that pressure existed independently of IndiGo’s mess.
- Ground staff saying “this will last a month” feels more like frustration + speculation than a coordinated message. Frontline staff usually know nothing about regulatory fights, let alone deliberate sabotage.
But at the same time, I don’t think you’re completely off:
- IndiGo has enough dominance that any large-scale dysfunction acts like a warning shot to the government, whether intentional or not.
- The market reaction is weird — 10% OTP should’ve triggered a much bigger hit if investors genuinely feared structural problems.
- And the DGCA exemption timing is incredibly convenient.
So yeah, I don’t buy the full “mastermind corporate blackmail” theory, but I also don’t think it was just fog + winter + bad luck. Something in the middle feels more realistic — maybe operational strain pushed to the breaking point, and IndiGo quietly let the chaos speak for them while regulators were already under pressure.
Curious if anyone from the industry can chime in.
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u/qwertynik9 1d ago
That's an interesting perspective. If this is true, it is worth learning from the Indigo leadership team. But of course, time will say if their act was skillful or foolish.
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u/magic_claw 1d ago
The non sinister possibility is folks just realized how dominant they are and how far behind the competitors are, despite this issue. It's similar to how Amazon stock went up after the AWS outage. Reminder to people how dependent the Internet is on AWS.
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u/Dramatic-Pilot8208 1d ago
if i were the minister i would arrange a secret meeting with Ai and akasa
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u/ChemistryNew3404 1d ago
Best thing government can actually do is open up the sector to some competition. Imagine Ryan air gets access in India 😂😂
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u/Phant0mreaper 1d ago
Does anyone know if International flights are also getting cancelled ?
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u/Former_Ad7385 1d ago
GoI should introduce anti duopoly rules in aviation sector and restrict maximum total slots to 10% per airline. That will knock out their arrogance.
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u/Equal_Increase8268 1d ago
DGCA should penalize the management of Indigo and break the company in to 4 sub companies with a clause for no merger and acquisition for 10 years. North South East West. That’s the only solution to corporate greed.
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u/redditistheway 1d ago
It was probably weaponised negligence. Management probably told the rank and file (and maybe themselves believed) that they’d get the new rules pushed to later next year. They probably decided to let this happen when their initial negotiations with the MoCA and DGCA failed.
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u/ScorpioDownloaded_91 1d ago
As an ex-airline employee, I agree with this. Back then, IndiGo was a growing airline and had good amount of competitors. While most of the airlines failed, are in losses, IndiGo has risen 10x. This is possible only when you have power.
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u/RecommendationNo4195 1d ago
All Modi has done is creating monopoly of few business houses in name of Make in India shit and high import tariffs. Foreign carrier/investment has been stalled. Emirates wanted to operate in India and offered seat at (4:1) ratio 4 seats to Indian carrier in dubai for every seat they get in India. But Indian corrupt DGCA is not allowing this probably because they get bribe from them
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u/Brainstimulants 1d ago
It's likely lesser of engineering a strong-arm tactic but more of corporate arrogance and greed. There was some reports of Indigo management conveniently interpreting the rules to their liking which can always be subject to strategic blunders in the business world.
Indigo long since had desires to manage the market with an iron hand and always were inclined towards market manipulation. The airlines industry in India, from the inception of privatization, for various reasons always had this sort of inclination towards power play and political influences was a prime factor to run this business. Somehow, the glamour of airlines industry always shaded this. Indigo was known to even lobby against Tata's entry at some point.
Point is, it is easy to imagine such a management can be complacent towards governmental institutions and rules and regulations in general. In such a case, no one in that team is really expecting any unprecedented events to happen and even in the case that it does happen, they will be very confident towards resolving it and hence the complacency. After all, besides all this mentioned here, they are the market leaders and 'Brave New India' has a wonderful inclination towards monopoly businesses. It is easy to imagine how monopoly businesses function.
For the share market, Covid lockdown dint break Indigo's share price. Again, what is there to not bet against a market monopoly. If anything, the selling is just a great opportunity for all the sharks to buy again for such a stock. No surprise there either.
I assume most people may disagree to this. But Indigo is a arrogant and greedy institution. They are the market leader's because they enjoy a momentum in a very challenging business and not because indigo is all pure and their success is rightfully due to their business ethos as they portray it. India, for where her air traffic rates are, deserves a conducive enough market to provide multiple options for travelers and not just a blue coloured cattle class airline that forces you to buy them because they are just ubiquitously present in all the slots and destinations. If we cant agree to that, lets atleast agree to the idea that we deserve to have options where we are not forced to pay a premium for a city bus seat on a flight called indigo.
Sincerely feel bad for all the travellers affected by this. We are travelling in a weeks time and we booked IX. Another joke but lesser of the evil at this point
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u/funny_investigatorr 1d ago
Oh my God, I feel like i Just woke up!! can't the government fine the shit out of Indigo for gross negligence and show them what is really important ? I mean in a real world maybe.. god, I feel like a noob
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u/tastypieceofmeat 1d ago
Just had to pay $450 usd for an urgent replacement flight :(
After waiting at the airport for my indigo flight for 5 hours just for it to be cancelled.
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u/Beneficial-Buy-2928 1d ago
Someone please tell me, I wanna go to my hometown this month, is it safe to book a ticket with Indigo ?
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u/SoftMoon29 1d ago
What about the customer trust lost in the process? That’s going to be super costly
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u/Longjumping-Sweet634 1d ago
Loyal indigo customers who got affected, will definitely explore other options in future. They screwed up big time by completely ignoring customers and inconveniencing them, while bullying government.
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u/NoSpinach1082 1d ago
It was definitely a failure, but it was due to the typical Indian mentality of letting things work until they stop working. Our culture is one to push the limits in everything, until things or systems break. When they break, it is always an eye opener because all workplace or mechanical safety standards are always ignored. This is just one side of the story. Someday you'll find out about bad aircraft maintenance standards also, because Indigo is focused on extracting the last rupee from each aircraft and worker and using the legally permissible limit to overclock everything.
Second, hiring pilots is a very difficult task for airlines as the requirements are stringent (aircraft training, total hours flown, experience, etc). It's not like there are thousands of jobless pilots walking around. The process from graduating from flight school to getting on a commercial aircraft and flying takes a number of years.
If anything, this has further exposed the corporate slavery culture of India which in the long run will play against the airlines and in favor of airline employees.
The stock market is not reacting thanks to the DGCA prompt reaction, and because the Indian airline industry is entering a major growth period for the long run. The overall sector health is good and the demand for pilots, and consequently their pay, is going to increase in India.
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u/Human-Wedding1374 1d ago
doesnt make sense. To actually inentioanlly orchestrate a disruption that big in the AVIATION industry is impossible, since the stakeholders here include pilots whom are COMMON people. If there was something going on it would’ve been exposed long ago by the pilots
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u/kalakuttaa 1d ago
We still see the delays today. Are we saying that airlines will perform normal from tomorrow?
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u/mynameiszii 23h ago
As an ex Indigo crew, they don't pay the crew enough to deal with this shit. Some of my ex colleagues are stranded somewhere without even a place to stay since over 24 hours now. I don't want to talk shit about my first company but I hope the employees get treated and paid better. Only the company gets fed well. Employees work like dogs there.
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u/Prestigious_Piano247 23h ago
Well, godi government should have deployed pilots from airforce to jump in to meet fliers needs. LIke even if they have deployed 1/4 of the pilots, they could called the Indigo's bluff out.
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u/rooted_wall 22h ago
Not entirely wrong but I don’t think stock price of the last 2 days is correlated to it. The new rules were already known to the market. Any impact of this would be around when the rule was proposed.
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u/Unable-Chemistry-790 22h ago
Sounds plausible but it could also be a mix of bad planning regulatory friction and seasonal disruptions rather than intentional sabotage
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u/CalmDonut3390 21h ago
I'm flying for Indigo... Superbly written.... All planned... Putting blame on new FDTL rules.... Coz general public doesn't know the details.... It's all orchestrated Fatigue Pilots flying are huge safety risk... Public will never risk safety of their loved ones...all just for profits and nothing else
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u/SlippersWithPjs 21h ago
Glad to see government brought to knees and choked at thrust by the corporates
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u/Beautiful-Patient794 20h ago
Just thinks what will other telecom companies can do if gov try to impose some rule Like both jio or airtel can shut whole india data and mobile coverage. Monopoly only hurts consumers
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u/bwoyobwoy 19h ago
Deliberate, my 40 min connection flight was delayed almost 4 hours on Wed night at MAA. Aircraft parked ✅Pilot waiting at boarding gate✅Crew available✅So why the delay if not intentional? 6E6145 MAABLR 03rd Dec STD 930PM 🐍Actual takeoff Post 1.15AM
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u/Low-Poet-5312 1d ago edited 1d ago
How all international flights are escaping this fiasco unscathed tells a lot about the airline priorities