Minister in Rajya Sabha: Strict action against IndiGo, will set an example

To the questions raised by Congress MP Pramod Tiwari, who wanted to know whether IndiGo crisis was caused by a fault in the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS), a technical issue that disrupted flight services in early November 2025, the minister said the Indigo crisis was not related to AMSS, but was a result of the rostering issues with IndiGo after the new Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) guidelines came into force.

The guideline, Naidu said, was enforced after due consultations with all stakeholders, including IndiGo. The new guideline was framed after the high court order in April 2025. Naidu said that there were 22 FDTL guidelines, of which 15 were implemented from July 1, 2025 and the remaining seven from November 1, 2025.

The Union minister said while the new regulations were the same for all airline companies, many had met the DGCA to request exemptions. He said, “All airlines vary in operations—some have night operations, some operate heavily in the northeast, some have ATR-specific (a type of aircraft) operations. The DGCA sat with all airlines and after thorough consultation and safety risk assessment, necessary variations and exemptions have been given beforehand.”

Naidu said even on December 1, 2025, when the Ministry met with IndiGo on FDTL, as it required some clarification, the company didn’t flag the issue that caused the crisis. “This is a day-to-day operation— something that IndiGo should have maintained. IndiGo was supposed to manage the crew, and roster through its day-to-day operations,” Naidu said.

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