New Delhi, IndiGo managing director Rahul Bhatia has called for a review of India's pilot flight duty time rules, saying these norms erode cockpit productivity, inflate airline costs and make the country's aviation sector "uncompetitive" compared with global peers.
"I think Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) needs a review, and I think there's enough conversation going on with the government. All we want to do is appeal to the government that we must follow the global best practices," Bhatia told PTI in an interview.
These remarks are one of the airline's strongest public criticisms of the revised Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms, which came into force in November 2025 and contributed to widespread flight disruptions at IndiGo during last year's peak travel season.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) implemented the revised FDTL norms in phases last year to reduce pilot fatigue.
The rules increased mandatory weekly rest from 36 hours to 48 hours, capped night flying by limiting night duty and the number of night landings, and revised duty period calculations to account for circadian rhythm and fatigue. Airlines had argued the changes would require more pilots and increase operating costs, while pilot associations backed the norms as a long-pending safety measure.
"We were in the eye of the storm" during the implementation of the new rules," Bhatia said.
"So when you come up with a policy where the productivity in the cockpit diminishes to the extent it has, it makes Indian aviation uncompetitive," he said. "It directly impacts the cost structure." Bhatia said and added that airlines were not arguing for lower safety standards but for regulations aligned with international practices.
Stressing that no airline wants to have unsafe operations, Bhatia said "If India wants to compete with the world, then one cannot have FDTL regulations that are so far off the mark from global benchmarks that it actually drives a deep wedge into your efficiency."
Describing aviation as a "fine margin" business, he added: "It would be unfair for us to say that the FDTL regulations, I'm just taking an example, in the US is less safe than the FDTL regulations in India."
India's largest airline, with a 66.3 per cent domestic market share in June, came under regulatory scrutiny after operational disruptions in December 2025 forced it to cancel 2,507 flights over three days. The DGCA later cited over-optimisation of operations, inadequate regulatory preparedness, software deficiencies and shortcomings in management structure and operational control, while also cutting IndiGo's winter schedule by 10 per cent.
The regulator subsequently granted IndiGo temporary relaxations in implementing the revised FDTL norms until February 10.
In its 2025-26 annual report released this week, the airline said the revised crew rostering rules posed execution challenges during a peak travel period, contributing to delays, service disruptions and cancellations.
According to Bhatia, who is also the Co-Founder of IndiGo, airline business is a "fine margin" business and every little cent matters.
At the end of March 2026, the airline, operated by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, had a workforce of 41,907 employees, including 5,786 pilots and 11,203 cabin crew. The airline operates over 2,100 flights daily with a fleet of over 400 planes.
