India has capacity for five big airlines, need more competition: Civil aviation minister

As IndiGo faces intense pressure to normalise operations, aviation minister said India needs more competition in aviation.

Civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu has delved on the need to have more airlines in India amid a crisis that has engulfed major carrier IndiGo which is facing heat from the regulator and the government over its mishandling of the new pilot rest duty rules resulting in massive disruption.

Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, the minister said that the government has initiated an inquiry into the mass cancellations by the budget carrier and that strict action will be taken to set an example for others. The minister blamed the airline for chaos attributing it to the mismanagement in their rostering system.

“We are not taking this situation easily. We are doing an inquiry. We will take very, very strict action not only for this situation but also as an example,” the minister said.

The minister also highlighted that the airline didn't flag the FDTL issue even on December 1 during a meeting, a full one month after the new rules came into effect.

Out of the 22 FDTL guidelines, 15 were implemented from July 1, 2025, and the rest were operationalized on November 1.

The minister pointed out to the growing aviation market in India and that the burgeoning demand needs at least five big carriers. Naidu said that the government has encouraged more players and increased competition in the aviation market.

Taking a strict note of the hardship faced by passengers, the DGCA pulled up the airline and has issued a show cause notice to its CEO Pieter Elbers. It has also constituted a four-member committee on the issue.

IndiGo has formed a crisis management group to monitor the situation closely. The group holds daily meetings to keep a close eye on the situation. The airline has also started processing refunds.

The airline said it has processed Rs 827 crore worth of refunds till now and the rest are under process. The airline claimed that more than 1,800 flights are set to operate on December 8.

"Today (December 8), we are all set to operate over 1800 flights, connecting all stations that we operate to. We have optimized our operations and managed to reduce the number of cancellations which are being notified to customers in advance, and our on-time performance (OTP) has also improved to 91% across the network."