By Admin 
Thousands of passengers faced problems due to cancellation of Indigo flights on 6 December. Meanwhile, the Aviation Ministry directed IndiGo to complete the process of refund of tickets for canceled flights by the evening. That means you will get your ticket money back by 7th December.
Refund will be available till the night of 7th December
The Civil Aviation Ministry has asked IndiGo to complete the ticket refund process for passengers affected by the disruption in flights by 8 pm on Sunday night. Also said that the airline should ensure that all the luggage separated from the passengers due to flight cancellation is delivered within the next 48 hours.
IndiGo was also directed to set up special assistance and refund facility centers for passengers. The automatic refund process will continue until operations are completely stabilized.
Additionally, the ministry said airlines should ensure that passengers’ lost luggage due to flight cancellations or delays is traced and delivered to them within the next 48 hours.
Aviation Ministry gave information to PM Modi
The Aviation Ministry has informed PM Modi in the Indigo case. In fact, continuous meetings are being held by the ministry for the last two days. The government is preparing to impose heavy fine on the airline.
There was a mess due to the new rules of the government
The new pilot duty rules (FDTL Phase-2) of the Central Government came into force and IndiGo was not at all prepared for it. The Pilot Union filed a petition in the Delhi High Court in January 2024. In this, the issue of flight safety was raised due to excessive working hours and fatigue of pilots. After the order of the High Court, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) made changes in the Flight Duty Time Limitation i.e. FDTL rules. These rules were to be implemented in two parts.
On July 1, 2025, Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) rules were implemented to give rest to the pilots. Under this, it was made mandatory for airline companies to give pilots 48 hours of rest instead of 36 hours a week, i.e. two days weekly rest. During this period, there was a ban on counting any holiday as weekly rest. The objective was very good that the less tired the pilot is, the safer the flight will be. But these rules reduced the availability of pilots by 15-20%.
In the second phase of FDTL, from November 1, DGCA had also banned continuous night shifts of pilots and other crew members.
- Earlier, rest was available for 36 hours in a week, now 48 hours is mandatory. This means each pilot can fly about one day less in a week.
- Night duty was earlier considered to be from 12 noon to 5 am, now till 6 am. That means one more hour more.
- A pilot can do only 2 night landings in a week, earlier there was a relaxation of up to 6.
- Night duty cannot be done for more than two consecutive nights.
- The most dangerous rule was that if the flight went on for even 1 minute after 12 o’clock in the night, then the entire duty was considered as night duty and the pilot would not be able to fly 1-2 flights in the morning the next day.
This meant only one thing: a pilot is no longer able to fly as many flights as he could before.
More than 400 flights canceled today
On December 5, more than 1,000 flights of the country’s largest airline Indigo were canceled and the same situation remained on December 6. On Saturday, more than 400 flights were canceled at the airports of many cities including the four major airports of the country, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. The ministry said that any delay or non-compliance in the refund process will take immediate regulatory action. More than 2,000 flights have been canceled in the last 4 days. On average 500 flights are getting delayed every day.