Due to the operational crisis of the country’s largest airline IndiGo, passengers are suffering due to flight cancellations and delays. Meanwhile, the government data presented in the Lok Sabha on Thursday (December 11, 2025) presented a worrying picture of the Indian aviation sector. Despite the continuously increasing demand, this industry is currently immersed in massive losses.

Only Indigo is profitable
According to the written reply given by the Civil Aviation Ministry, IndiGo was the only major airline to make profit in the financial year 2024-25. The company registered a profit of Rs 7,253 crore during this period. In contrast, government airline Air India suffered a loss of Rs 3,976 crore, Air India Express Rs 5,832 crore, Akasa Air Rs 1,986 crore and Alliance Air suffered a loss of Rs 691 crore. SpiceJet also remained in loss and recorded a loss of Rs 56 crore. The small-scale operator Star Air was an exception, earning a modest profit of Rs 68 crore.

old series of losses
This economic crisis is not new. In the financial year 2022-23, Indian Airlines had incurred a collective loss of more than Rs 18,600 crore. Air India alone lost Rs 11,387 crore, while IndiGo also suffered a loss of Rs 316 crore. Although Indigo made a strong comeback in the next financial year 2023-24 and registered a profit of Rs 8,167 crore, other companies could not get out of the quagmire of losses. Air India suffered a loss of Rs 4,444 crore and SpiceJet suffered a loss of Rs 404 crore.

Demand increased, but debt and cost increased problems
This is the situation when the number of people flying in the country is continuously increasing. In the financial year 2024-25, the number of domestic passengers increased by 7.7% to 16.55 crore. Despite this, airlines are stuck in a cycle of heavy debt, high operating costs and low margins. For this reason, new players are afraid to enter the market, while the demand is continuously touching record levels.

Passengers troubled by Indigo crisis, lack of options increases difficulties
The recent operational crisis of IndiGo, which has about 65% domestic market share, has shaken the entire system. Thousands of flights had to be canceled due to severe crew shortage and new duty-time regulations. Competing airlines are already facing financial crisis, hence passengers are left with very limited options. As a result, crowding at airports is increasing, fares are skyrocketing and passenger dissatisfaction is also increasing.

Due to the eruption of Hayli Gubbi volcano in Afar, Ethiopia on Sunday (23 November), the cloud of ash has spread eastwards and reached the Arabian Sea and India, which is directly affecting Indian flights. Due to this many flights have had to be cancelled.

‘We are in constant contact with the operating crew’
Air India posted on Twitter saying that we are monitoring this situation very closely and are in constant touch with our operating crew. We are making every effort to make alternative travel arrangements as soon as possible. It was told in the post that the safety of passengers, crew and aircraft is our top priority. Our ground teams will continue to provide assistance and updates to passengers on the network.

Indigo has also assured the passengers that after the volcanic eruption, there are reports of ash clouds moving towards western India. We understand that this news may cause concern, but your safety is our top priority. Our teams are monitoring the situation in coordination with international aviation bodies. We will continue to provide updates to minimize any inconvenience.

Airlines on alert
Akasa Air has canceled flights to Jeddah, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi on 24 and 25 November. Dutch Airlines has canceled its Amsterdam-Delhi (KL 871) and Delhi-Amsterdam (KL 872) flights. Indigo has assured the passengers that safety is the top priority and the situation is being constantly monitored.

DGCA has issued an advisory to airlines and airports to deal with the problems caused by the ash cloud emanating from volcanic activity in Ethiopia. Akasa Air, IndiGo and KLM are among the airlines that have canceled some flights due to the ash cloud.

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Aviation Updates: Air India on Saturday announced the resumption of its codeshare partnership with Air Canada. This partnership was suspended during the Corona epidemic. Under this codeshare agreement, Air India passengers will now be able to travel to Vancouver and London (Heathrow) as well as six other cities in Canada.

Partnership formed after five years

Through the codeshare system, passengers will be able to travel on flights of both the airlines on a single ticket. According to the release, Air India will impose its ‘AI’ code on Air Canada flights. These include flights from Vancouver to Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal, Halifax and London Heathrow to Vancouver and Calgary.

In return, Air Canada passengers will get better connectivity to Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kochi via Delhi, and to Delhi and Mumbai via London (Heathrow). The release said that with this partnership, passengers of both the airlines will get a more convenient and seamless travel experience on a single ticket.

IndiGo’s parent company will join BSE Sensex from December 22.

InterGlobe Aviation, which operates the country’s largest airline Indigo, will join BSE’s 30-share major index Sensex from December 22. BSE Index Services informed about this change on Saturday. With this, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Limited will be excluded from Sensex.

BSE Index Services Private Limited has announced these changes as part of the restructuring of its various indices, which will be effective as soon as the market opens on December 22 (Monday).

It has been decided to include IDFC First Bank Limited in the BSE 100 index, which will replace Adani Green Energy Limited. At the same time, Max Healthcare Institute Limited will be added to BSE Sensex Next 50 and IndusInd Bank Limited will be removed from this index.

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Air India: The effect of the sour relationship between India and Pakistan is that both the countries have closed their airspace to each other. Due to this, airline companies are suffering huge losses. One of these is Air India. Firstly, the travel time on many long routes has increased by up to three hours, the cost of fuel has also increased by 29%.

The company is estimated to suffer an annual loss of $455 million due to the closure of airspace, which is more than the reported loss of $439 million in the year 2024-25. To compensate for the losses incurred by the company, Air India has now made a demand from the government.

What is the demand of Air India?

Air India wants the government to ensure the airline’s emergency access to Hotan, Kashgar and Urumqi in Xinjiang, China, which will make it easier to fly to America, Canada and Europe. This will reduce time and also reduce costs. According to the Reuters report, the company says that Air India’s long distance network is under severe operational and financial pressure. In such a situation, getting permission to fly from Hotan route would be a strategic option.

Why is this route dangerous?

The route that Air India is talking about in Xinjiang, China, is located amidst some of the highest mountains in the world, whose height is more than 20,000 feet. In such a situation, to avoid decompression, many international airlines avoid this route. This means a sudden drop in atmospheric pressure, which can cause breathing problems to passengers, sudden opening of cabin windows or doors or damage to the aircraft, etc.

Apart from this, it also comes under the jurisdiction of China’s People’s Liberation Army Western Theater Command. Air India wants the Indian government to convince China to use the sensitive military airspace in Xinjiang. However, experts believe that due to possible security risks, it is very unlikely that China will agree to this.

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Air India flight AI174, en route from San Francisco to Delhi on Sunday (November 2, 2025), had to make a precautionary landing in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia due to a suspected technical glitch midway. The flight crew suspected a possible technical problem during the flight, after which it was decided to land the plane at Ulaanbaatar Airport in Mongolia for safety reasons.

According to Air India, they are working with their partners to ensure the convenience of the passengers and efforts are being made to take everyone to their destination Delhi as soon as possible. Flight number AI174 via Kolkata landed safely in Ulaanbaatar and technical investigation is currently underway.

Air India official expressed regret

An Air India official said, ‘We regret the inconvenience caused to passengers due to this emergency situation. We are working closely with our partners to assist all passengers. At Air India, the safety of passengers and crew is paramount for us.

IMPORTANT UPDATE

“AI174 of 02 November, operating from San Francisco to Delhi via Kolkata, made a precautionary landing at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, after the flight crew suspected a technical issue en route. The aircraft landed safely at Ulaanbaatar and is undergoing the necessary…

— Air India (@airindia) November 3, 2025

Crew suspects technical problem en route

The airline posted information on its social media handle ‘X’ and said, ‘On November 2, flight AI174 from San Francisco to Delhi via Kolkata landed as a precautionary measure in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, because the flight crew suspected a technical problem en route. The plane landed safely in Ulaanbaatar and necessary checks are underway.

The airline further wrote in the post, ‘We are working closely with our partners to assist all passengers and are also trying to get everyone to their destination as soon as possible. We regret the inconvenience caused to passengers due to this unexpected situation.

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Flaws in scheduling and rostering still continue in Air India, even though the regulator had reprimanded it on the same issue 5 months ago. In the latest case, a co-pilot and a senior captain have been removed from flying duty after the airline learned that they each operated a flight last month.

In one case, the English Language Proficiency (ELP) license had expired, while in the other case, a co-pilot had not cleared the Bi-Annual Pilot Proficiency Check (PPC) Instrument Rating (IR) test. Let us tell you that now DGCA is investigating these flaws and a report has been sought from the airline.

Co-pilot could not clear latest IR-PPC check

According to the report, the co-pilot had failed to clear his latest IR-PPC check. Although this is not a very unusual thing, but the pilot has to take mandatory corrective training before flying again. In this case, the co-pilot operated the flight without training and this mistake is being taken very seriously.

What did Air India say?

An Air India spokesperson said, ‘The case of the first officer operating the flight after unsatisfactory performance in the training check was detected as soon as the mistake was noticed. The crew scheduler and pilot have been off-roster. Further legal process has been initiated and a report has been made to DGCA.

Pilot off-roster

In the second case, a senior captain operated an A-320 flight as pilot-in-command despite his ELP license having expired. Let us tell you that ELP license is the basic requirement for a pilot to fly. Air India has said that a case of senior pilot operating a flight with an expired ELP has come to light. After this the pilot was off-roster and investigation is going on and report has been made to DGCA. Senior pilots say that these flaws raise questions on the oversight in Air India to ensure that only the right pilots come on the roster.

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Air India: Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said on Tuesday that Air India has suffered an estimated loss of Rs 4,000 crore so far due to Pakistan keeping its airspace closed to Indian airlines. On June 12, people were shocked by the fatal crash of Air India’s Boeing Dreamliner 787-8 plane going from Ahmedabad to London’s Gatwick Airport. On top of that, due to closure of Pakistan’s air space, the challenges facing the company have increased further. There are problems in operations and financial problems also persist.

Huge loss to Air India

Wilson said in an event, due to the closure of Pakistan’s air space, Air India has to change the route of flights going towards Europe and North America, due to which more fuel is being consumed, the expenses are also increasing and the travel time is also taking more. Air India has suffered a loss of Rs 4,000 crore due to this.

Why did the need to close the airspace arise?

After the death of 26 people in the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, India retaliated by closing its airspace to Pakistani airlines. After this Pakistan also did the same. Later, due to increase in tension between the two countries after ‘Operation Sindoor’, Pakistan extended this ban further. Under this, no civilian or military aircraft of both the countries will get entry into each other’s airspace. The biggest impact of this ban has been on the routes connecting India with Europe and America. This is one of the most used routes of Air India. Due to this, the average journey time is now taking 60-90 minutes extra as compared to before.

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Air India has announced to send a special plane to bring back the people stranded in Milan to India on Sunday (October 19, 2025) afternoon. The airline has expressed its commitment to bring back 256 passengers stranded in Milan from Friday (October 17, 2025) to India by special flight. Actually, Air India flight AI138 was scheduled to fly from Milan to Delhi on Friday (October 17, 2025). But due to a technical glitch, the flight was canceled, after which the passengers of the flight are stranded in Milan.

Air India shared a post in this regard on social media platform X on Sunday (October 19). In the post, the airline said, ‘Air India will send a special aircraft from Milan today (Sunday, October 19) to bring back the stranded passengers of flight AI138, which was canceled due to a technical glitch.’

Air India said that it has provided all kinds of immediate facilities including hotel accommodation and food to all the affected passengers. Apart from this, as per the wish of the passengers, arrangements are also being made for full refund or complimentary rescheduling. The airline said that we are committed to providing all possible help to all our passengers.

flight AI138 has had technical problems before too

A similar incident had happened with Air India flight AI138 on August 16, two months before Friday (October 17), when a technical fault was found in the plane during pushback and the journey was cancelled.

Regarding that incident, the airline had said, ‘When the aircraft was getting ready to take off from Milan to Delhi, a maintenance problem was encountered on the aircraft. After this, the operating crew came under the limitations of the required flight duty time, which made it extremely unsafe and inappropriate for them to continue the flight. Therefore the journey was cancelled.

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The Diwali of 255 passengers who returned to India from Milan city of Italy for the festival was overshadowed. Due to a technical fault in Air India’s Dreamliner flight, the flight had to be canceled on Friday (17 October 2025). Because of this, the passengers were stopped in Milan itself, although arrangements were made for their stay.

Technical fault in the plane coming to Delhi

The company said, “On October 17, AI-138 flight from Milan to Delhi was canceled due to technical reasons. The safety of all passengers and crew was given priority. Hotel accommodation has been arranged for all affected passengers. Due to limited availability, accommodation has been arranged outside the airport vicinity.”

Travelers returning home on Diwali stranded in Milan

Due to a glitch in the plane, the plans to celebrate Diwali of 256 passengers and more than 10 crew members going home for the festival got spoiled. One passenger’s Schengen visa was expiring on October 20, 2025, and he was immediately booked on another flight so that he could reach India before the visa expired. Preparations are on to send the remaining passengers on the flight on or after October 20.

Now when will the stranded passengers come to India?

A company spokesperson said, “Based on seat availability on Air India and other airlines, passengers have been rebooked on alternative flights on or after October 20. As the Schengen visa of a passenger was expiring on October 20, his ticket has been booked on another flight.”

Expressing regret at the inconvenience to passengers, the company said, “We will provide food and necessary facilities to all affected passengers. We are committed to the safety and welfare of our passengers and crew.” Air India’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner (VT-ANN) has faced technical glitches on long-haul routes in the past as well.

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Pushkraj Sabharwal, father of pilot Captain Sumit Sabharwal, who died in the AI-171 plane crash in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, has filed a petition in the Supreme Court alleging lack of transparency and credibility in the investigation. 260 people died in this accident. He has demanded that an independent investigation be conducted into this matter under judicial supervision.

Objection to preliminary investigation
The petitioners say the initial investigation into the accident was seriously flawed and focused primarily on the pilots, who could no longer defend themselves. The petition has been filed on behalf of Pushkraj Sabharwal and Federation of Indian Pilots. The AAIB report cited human error as the cause of the accident, but family members and pilot organizations say that technical and procedural aspects were not properly examined in the investigation.

Questions on the impartiality of the investigation team
Objections have also been raised in the petition on the structure of the investigation committee. Most of its members are associated with the DGCA and state aviation authorities, the same institutions whose procedures and oversight are under question in this accident. The petitioners say that the investigating agencies are conducting their own investigation, which is against the principle of natural justice.

pilot’s record
Captain Sumeet Sabharwal had an impeccable career of 30 years, which included 15,638 hours of safe flying. He had flown on Boeing 787-8 aircraft for 8,596 hours without any incident. The petition demands that the accident be investigated by an independent expert committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, so that the real reasons can be transparently investigated and such accidents do not happen again in future.

How did the accident happen?
On June 12, 2025, Air India Flight 171, going from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, crashed just seconds after takeoff. In this, 12 crew members and 229 passengers were killed, while one passenger miraculously survived. The plane crashed into the hostel of a medical college, killing 19 people.