- IndiGo cancelled over 550 flights in one day due to crew and tech issues
- The airline began as a low-cost carrier in August 2026
- In FY23, IndiGo controlled about 64.2% of India's domestic aviation market
IndiGo has dominated headlines for all the wrong reasons this week. More than 550 flights were cancelled in a single day, and passengers across major airports found themselves stranded for hours.
Mumbai saw at least 118 cancellations, Bengaluru 100, Hyderabad 75, Kolkata 35, Chennai 26, and Goa 11, with disruptions reported from many more airports.
The airline says the situation will take at least another two to three days to stabilise, as planning gaps, crew shortages and technology issues collided with winter congestion.
On-time performance crashed to just 19.7 per cent on Wednesday, a staggering fall for a carrier that built its reputation on punctuality. The Civil Aviation Ministry and DGCA summoned senior IndiGo officials, while CEO Pieter Elbers admitted internally that restoring punctuality will not be an easy target.
Indigo has found itself in the middle of chaos. Photo: X
While the present chaos paints a grim picture, it is impossible to ignore that IndiGo is not just another airline. It is the biggest success story in Indian aviation, the carrier that redefined flying for the masses and expanded the idea of affordable air travel beyond metros.
To understand how the airline reached a position where it owns more than half of the domestic market today, one has to look back at its foundation, its ambitions, its genius business model, and the turning points that shaped it.
Let's start at the beginning.
Changing The Indian Sky
IndiGo did not begin as a giant. In 2005, Rahul Bhatia of InterGlobe Enterprises and aviation veteran Rakesh Gangwal came together with a vision to run a lean, no-nonsense airline that would rely on scale, discipline and efficiency rather than luxury.
They placed an audacious order for 100 Airbus A320 aircraft at the 2005 Paris Air Show even before the airline's first flight. Many doubted them. Yet on August 4, 2006, IndiGo took off with three A320s connecting Delhi and Mumbai.
Rakesh Gangwal and Rahul Bhatia. Photo: IndiGo
By April 2007, it had already flown one million passengers. In 2010, it overtook Air India to become India's third-largest airline with a 17.3 per cent market share. August 2012 was the major milestone, when IndiGo became the number one carrier by passenger load and crossed 50 million passengers by December the same year.
The Meteoric Expansion
IndiGo's growth was not luck. The airline expanded in a measured, calculated manner.
- 14 aircraft by the end of 2007
- 25 aircraft in 2009
- 100 aircraft in 2015
- 250 by late 2019
- 300 by January 2023
The scale of its Airbus deals stunned the world. A 300-A320neo order in 2019 worth around Rs 2.3 lakh crore was followed by a record 500-aircraft order in 2023 worth an estimated $50 billion, the largest single commercial aviation order in history.
The airline has since also ordered 30 Airbus A350-900s with 70 purchase options for future wide-body expansion.
The numbers translated into dominance. By FY23, IndiGo had a revenue of approximately Rs 55,877.89 crore and a net profit of around Rs 2,998 crore, with a domestic market share of about 62.1 per cent. Today that figure is close to 64.2 per cent.
A Closer Look At The Business Model
IndiGo followed the 'principles' of global low-cost legends but tailored them to India with an obsessive focus on cost and punctuality.
- A single aircraft family to minimise maintenance training and spare part costs
- Point-to-point routes instead of expensive hub systems
- Sale-and-leaseback financing that converted aircraft orders into cash flow
- High aircraft utilisation and quick turnarounds
- Ancillary revenue streams from baggage, meals and priority services that account for nearly 20 per cent of revenue
IndiGo did not offer glamour, luxury and world-class service. It offered predictability. While Kingfisher went premium and collapsed, and Jet Airways struggled to balance costs and legacy operations, IndiGo delivered affordable fares without sacrificing reliability. Its on-time performance touched 86 to 87 per cent during peak years, with over 1,600 daily flights to over 100 destinations.
The Pandemic Stress Test
No airline escaped Covid, and IndiGo took heavy hits too. Passenger numbers crashed during the Covid-19 pandemic, and IndiGo reported a pre-tax loss of nearly Rs 2,750 crore in FY2020 and around Rs 5,830 crore in FY2021. Yet it did something competitors failed to do. It pivoted fast.
Ten aircraft were converted into freighters (aircraft designed for transporting cargo). Belly cargo space on narrow-body planes was aggressively monetised while international travel was shut.
Indigo turned its aircrafts into freighters. Photo: Unsplash
During the pandemic, cargo revenue became the airline's lifeline. IndiGo also focused on Tier 2 and 3 cities while renegotiating leases and streamlining workforce expenses. By the end of 2020, it added 45 net aircraft and reached a fleet of 262.
The resilience paid off. IndiGo returned to profits with Rs 2,449 crore in FY2022 and Rs 3,068 crore in FY2023, breaking multiple operational records including becoming the first Indian airline to carry 100 million passengers in a year.
The Partnership That Built The Empire And Then Cracked
The success of IndiGo was built on the synergy between its two founders. Rahul Bhatia supplied cost discipline and deep understanding of Indian regulation. Rakesh Gangwal shaped operational vision and global strategy.
Their combined leadership transformed IndiGo into India's most powerful airline. Yet cracks began to appear. By 2019, governance disputes surfaced publicly. Gangwal pushed for aggressive expansion and tighter corporate governance, Bhatia preferred control and cautious growth.
In 2022, Gangwal resigned from the board. By 2025, he had sold most of his shareholding and exited the airline completely. The departure marked the end of one of Indian aviation's most influential partnerships.
The Financial Reality Underneath
Despite its massive footprint, IndiGo is not immune to losses. In the September quarter of FY2026, the airline reported a net loss of Rs 2,582 crore, largely due to forex pressures on dollar-denominated expenses like fuel and leasing. Passenger numbers rose and revenue grew 9 per cent to Rs 18,555 crore, but costs rose faster. Excluding forex hits, IndiGo would have been in the green with Rs 104 crore profit.
Analysts repeatedly note the contradiction in the aviation business: high demand does not guarantee profits.
The Present Crisis
The latest disruptions have exposed manpower and planning vulnerabilities. IndiGo attributed the cancellations to the transition to Phase 2 of the revised Flight Duty Time Limitations that came into force on November 1. It misjudged the number of crew required under new duty norms and severely underestimated staffing needs. The norms have now been temporarily rolled back and the night landing cap suspended to stabilise flight operations.
Despite its massive footprint, IndiGo is not immune to losses. Photo: Unsplash
For a brand built on punctuality, this situation stings. Customers expect IndiGo to be the dependable, on-time carrier that made flying simple in India.
The Legacy And The Future
Even with present turbulence, IndiGo remains the largest airline India has ever seen by scale, revenue, and passengers carried. It controls the domestic market more tightly than any competitor in the past. Its wide-body ambitions, including A350s and Boeing 777 services, signal that the next battle is beyond South Asia. The airline has also positioned itself strongly to dominate international destinations from Tier 2 cities without routing people through metros.
Yet the challenges ahead are real. Higher costs, manpower management pressures, fierce comeback plans from Air India, and global uncertainties could continue to test its dominance.