The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered a probe into IndiGo. The airline is accused of misusing its market power by cancelling many flights in December and raising airfares. Between December 3 and 10, IndiGo cancelled nearly 4,200 flights. This followed about 900 cancellations in November. In total, around 5.9 lakh passengers were impacted by cancellations till December 9. The CCI's order on February 4 says, "Passengers who had booked tickets were left with no real choice but to accept last-minute cancellations. Further, passengers were left to seek alternatives, on their own, at significantly higher prices." IndiGo, being dominant in the market, locked in consumers who had no viable alternatives. The CCI noted, "By cancelling thousands of flights constituting a significant portion of the scheduled capacity, IndiGo effectively withheld its service from the market, creating an artificial scarcity, limiting consumer access to air travel during peak demand." The probe focuses on violations of two provisions in the Competition Commission Act 2002 which ban abuse of dominance, including unfair or discriminatory pricing and conditions. The investigation was triggered by a complaint from a passenger booked on a December 5 flight from Delhi to Bengaluru via Goa for ₹7,173. The flight was cancelled with no alternative offered. The passenger had to book a flight two days later at ₹17,000, more than double the original fare. Earlier, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation fined IndiGo ₹22.2 crore for operational issues including crew overstretch and lacking buffers. IndiGo refunded ₹1,100 crore and gave ₹10,000 vouchers to severely impacted passengers from December 3 to 5. The CCI has ordered its Director General to investigate and report within 90 days.