Indigo are planning to hire over 1,000 pilots, as a result of the massive operational disruption last December, when the company was forced to cancel over 5,000 flights within the week. In December 2025, the airline cancelled flights due to a crew shortage. This crisis was due to the implementation of revised pilot duty and rest norms by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Recruitment will include trainee first officers, senior officers and captains, according to the company website.
Stabilising operations after the December major disruptions
One of the hiring notices, as stated in reports, mentioned that the airline is open to recruiting pilots without prior experience. This is to drive more applicants for their job opening. The disruption had started when new rest regulations were introduced to the DGCA. This regulation enforced the need for increased weekly rest requirements and limited the number of landings that could be made between midnight and six in the morning. Despite this being overall beneficial for the well-being of pilots, it was also detrimental to operations for the airline, as they did not have enough staff in order to fill the gap.
Investigations conducted by the regulator had seen that IndiGo had not accelerated training or scaled up hiring to work within the new standards. This had caused frequent reassignments, increased duty hours, meaning that crew members travel as passengers to operate flights from another location, and pilots were overworked. The DGCA in their investigations stated they were trying to “maximise utilisation of crew, aircraft, and network resources”, which drastically lowered their roster buffer margins. These investigations followed after the airline was fined over there December disruptions, causing necessary change in their operational strategies.
Crew shortages expose gaps in operations
There was a heavy reliance on extended duty patterns and little recovery time; the rosters were designed to maximise duty periods. Due to this, it weakened operational resilience and the roster unfortunately led to many crew members being overworked. The investigation also found that Indigo was in need of 2,422 captains but only had 2,357.
In response of the crisis, the DGCA lifted temporarily night duties norms until Feb. 10 to combat the growing problem. With this new hiring strategy, Indigo hopes to tackle disruptions that occur on the airline so passengers journeys are not hindered.
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