Since November 1, 2025, IndiGo has cancelled thousands of flights. The cause is new pilot rest rules increasing weekly rest from 36 to 48 hours and limiting night landings. These rules reduce available pilot hours sharply. IndiGo admitted "misjudgement and planning gaps" caused this issue. To manage, IndiGo cut daily flights from 2,300 to about 1,800–1,900, harming both the airline and passengers. IndiGo controls over 60% of the market share, making this disruption huge. Competitors like Air India have only about 14% market share and cannot fill the gap due to their own struggles. IndiGo plans to hire over 900 pilots by December 2026, with 150 joining by February. Experts say hiring sooner could have prevented this crisis. Pilot numbers have not grown as fast as flight hours—IndiGo’s flights surged while pilot share slightly dropped. Capt. A. Ranganathan said, “IndiGo knew very well that they should have hired more pilots by November 1 this year. Despite not doing that, they applied for approval for the winter schedule this year. They actually increased the number of flights, which was approved by the DGCA.” Hiring more pilots would add about ₹5,500 million yearly, just 6-8% of IndiGo’s profit. The airline’s past profits were ₹81.6 billion in 2023-24 and ₹72.5 billion in 2024-25. But pilot hiring may be challenging because IndiGo delayed promoting key pilots and cut allowances. The data for this report comes from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and other official sources.