IndiGo vacated 717 slots at domestic airports after DGCA curtailed winter flights

Mumbai: IndiGo has vacated more than 700 slots at various domestic airports, following aviation watchdog DGCA curtailing the country's largest airline's winter flights by 10 per cent after massive operational disruptions in early December, according to sources.

Generally, slots refer to a particular time period given to an airline for takeoff and landing of aircraft. In simple terms, it is about operating flights at the given time.

Out of the 717 slots, as many as 364 are from six key metro airports -- Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Among these cities, most of the vacated slots are from Hyderabad and Bengaluru, the sources told PTI.

As per data provided by the sources, the number of slots vacated by IndiGo is spread over the January-March period. A total of 361 slots have been vacated for March compared to just 43 for February, and this month, the count of vacated slots is at 361.

Against this backdrop, the civil aviation ministry on Thursday asked other airlines to submit their requests for operating domestic flights on the slots vacated by IndiGo.

"IndiGo has submitted a list of 717 slots to the ministry, which it has vacated after the domestic winter schedule was reduced by 10 per cent in early December last year," one of the sources said.

The airline, which generally operates more than 2,200 flights daily, has trimmed the number of services following the directive from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) that was aimed at preventing last-minute cancellations and ensuring operational stability.

As part of its winter schedule for 2025-26, IndiGo was allowed to operate 15,014 flights per week, which comes to 2,144 flights per day.

A 10 per cent reduction has brought this down to 1,930 domestic flights per day. It may be noted here that IndiGo, in its summer schedule, operated on an average of 2,022 flights a day.

Between December 3 and 5 last year, IndiGo cancelled 2,507 flights and 1,852 flights were delayed, impacting over 3 lakh passengers at airports across the country.

Following the massive disruptions, DGCA reduced IndiGo's winter schedule by 10 per cent, which meant the airline had stopped operating services in various slots.

"Going by the slots vacated by IndiGo, it is clear that they can be operated by other airlines only till the end of March. After that, they might go back to IndiGo. No one can do the network planning at such short notice. No one is going to open a sector at such short notice, operate it only to close after a month," an airline industry executive said.

Another airline industry executive said airlines might not be keen to take the slots vacated by IndiGo, as most of them are for red-eye flights.

Generally, red-eye flights are those operated late at night or in the wee hours.

In its communication sent out to airlines on Thursday, the ministry said the committee on redistribution of the vacated IndiGo slots held its first meeting on January 13, wherein the process and principles for redistribution were discussed.

Following the deliberations, the panel has now asked airlines to submit their requests and preferences for the vacated slots, subject to various conditions, it added.

As per the communication, the airlines have to send their requests for the vacated slots to the airport operators concerned and the final decision on the redistribution of the slots.

Among other conditions, the interested airlines should not discontinue their existing routes to utilise the vacated slots.

On January 17, DGCA announced slapping fines totalling Rs 22.20 crore for the December flight disruptions and had also warned CEO Pieter Elbers and two other senior executives for the lapses.

It also directed the airline to furnish a Rs 50 crore bank guarantee to ensure long-term systemic corrections.

The watchdog, on January 20, said the disruptions stemmed from mismanagement of adequate flight crew, inadequate regulatory preparedness at the operator level, and shortcomings in system software support, management structure, and operational control.