Thousands of flights operated by India’s largest airline, IndiGo, have been cancelled in the past week, disrupting air travel during peak travel season in the world’s most populous nation.

The chaos started last week due to a pilot shortage after the private carrier failed to adapt to a new government guideline on the rest and duty hours of pilots.

The crisis has brought into the spotlight the working conditions of pilots in India and how airlines pushed policies that negatively affected their pay scale.

What do we know about flight disruptions?

IndiGo, which operates 2,200 flights daily, has been forced to cancel about 3,400 flights since December 2 in the worst crisis in the carrier’s 20-year operation.

There were flight disruptions in several big cities, including New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at airports across the country.

The airline says its operations will be back to normal by December 15.

Given that IndiGo controls 65 percent market share, the impact on travel and ticket prices was severe, forcing the government to intervene and even issue a cap on domestic fares.

Together, Air India and IndiGo control 92 percent of the market share. IndiGo is the only airline that connects many smaller cities and towns in India, such as Shillong, Kolhapur, Prayagraj, Agra and Deogarh, giving it a monopoly on those sectors.

On Friday, about 1,600 flights were cancelled. A day later, more than 700 flights were cancelled, followed by some 650 flights on Sunday. More than 400 flights have been cancelled so far on Monday.

The disruptions have caused a huge outcry.

What are the new guidelines on pilot rest and duty hours?

Early in 2024, the Indian government introduced new Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) regulations to improve pilots’ working hours, rest periods, and fatigue management across Indian airlines. These rules reduced the maximum daily duty hours and tightened rest requirements, aligning more closely with international fatigue‑risk norms.

The new rules, which came into effect on November 1, asked airlines to:

Increase pilots’ mandatory weekly rest period from 36 to 48 hours. A pilot’s personal leave request, however, cannot be included under the mandatory rest period.

Cap pilots’ flying hours that continue into the night to 10 hours.

Cap the weekly number of landings a pilot can make between midnight and early morning to two.

Submit pilots’ fatigue reports every quarter to India’s aviation regulator – the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Aviation experts and pilot unions have blamed IndiGo for poor preparation and negligence in adapting to the new rules. Former AirAsia CFO Vijay Gopalan attributed the crisis to IndiGo’s “very, very lackadaisical, nonchalant attitude” towards adapting to the latest regulations.

“Despite the two-year preparatory window before full FDTL implementation, the airline inexplicably adopted a hiring freeze, entered non-poaching arrangements, maintained a pilot pay freeze through cartel-like behaviour, and demonstrated other short-sighted planning practices,” the Federation of Indian Pilots told the Press Trust of India news agency on December 4.

Why did India introduce Flight Duty Time Limitations?

The Indian civil aviation authorities introduced the FDTL regulations to address pilot fatigue and safety concerns, bringing them closer to international standards.

These international standards are set by bodies such as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a United Nations agency which sets global aviation standards and coordinates international air transport, and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

The new regulations were introduced after years of lobbying by pilot unions and associations in India, including the Airline Pilots’ Association of India (ALPA), for updated fatigue rules. They raised concerns about operational safety risks and health impacts from long, irregular hours.

What is it like to be a pilot in India?

Pawan*, a commercial pilot with an Indian airline, told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, “You need to have completed about 200 hours of flight time through a training institution before working with an airline.”

As a child, Pawan lived in a housing society with pilots, engineers and airport managers because his father was also a pilot. These factors inspired him to become a pilot.

He added that, unlike many industries with annual inflation‑linked raises, pilot salaries rarely increase, and benefits are mostly standard – staff flight tickets for family, limited medical insurance and compensation if a licence is lost due to medical reasons or death.

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“From a lot of people that I’ve interacted with in the industry who’ve been here now 15 years close to the company, they are saying things like, ‘I feel like I’m earning the same thing I earned 10 years back, or maybe even less,’” Pawan, who has been a pilot in India for almost a decade, said.

Different websites have different estimates for the average salary earned by pilots in India.

The New Delhi-based FMS Aviation Academy estimates that the annual salary of new Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL) holders starts from 400,000 rupees ($4,400), as of 2025.

According to the academy, the annual salary of senior captains for commercial airlines can exceed 10 million rupees ($120,000). Another New Delhi-based aviation school, We One Aviation, cites the same figure for the salary of senior captains.

The entry-level job is a junior first officer or cadet. After sufficient flying hours, one is promoted to become a senior. After more than 3,000 hours of flying, pilots take the Airline Transport Pilot Licence (ATPL) theoretical test to become a captain, a position that allows them to take full responsibility for the flight.

How does India compare with the rest of the world?

International bodies like the ICAO do not prescribe specific limits to the number of hours or number of flights pilots can safely operate to avoid fatigue. Different countries have different regulations.

For example, the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) says pilots should get a minimum 48-hour break in any consecutive seven‑day period. Night duty is capped at nine to 10 hours. It does not state an explicit landing cap. In Australia, pilots can earn approximately 200,000 Australian dollars ($134,000) a year, and captains can earn up to 400,000 Australian dollars ($268,000) a year, according to the Melbourne-based Holmes Aviation Institute.

According to Canadian Aviation Regulations, pilots must get at least 36 consecutive hours off during any seven‑day period when they are operating from their normal home base. The night duty is limited to eight to 10 hours. There is no formal cap on night landings. In Canada, pilots can make between 38,000 Canadian dollars ($27,740) and 250,000 Canadian dollars ($182,500) a year, according to the Ontario-based institute, Flight Trainers.

The EASA sets the weekly rest to a minimum of 36 hours, which can be reduced to 24 hours with compensation. The average annual salaries for airline pilots across 17 European countries range from 32,299 euros ($35,000) in Romania to 113,672 euros ($122,776) in Switzerland as of 2025, according to the ERI Economic Research Institute.

In the United States, flight crew members get 30 consecutive hours free from all duty during a consecutive seven-day period of work. It caps the night duty to nine to 10 hours. There is no formal cap on night landings. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for commercial pilots in 2024 was $198,100 per year.

*Name changed to maintain anonymity