IndiGo, India’s largest airline, faced one of its worst operational breakdowns on Thursday, cancelling over 550 flights, the highest single-day cancellations in its 20-year history. The disruptions, stretched into a third consecutive day, have been triggered by a combination of crew shortages, planning gaps, winter congestion and technology-related issues.

The airline has revised its schedules to stabilise operations, which means that pre-planned cancellations will continue for the next two to three days. IndiGo, which operates around 2,300 flights daily, saw its on-time performance plummet to 19.7 per cent on Wednesday, down from 35 per cent on Tuesday, severely impacting passengers nationwide.

Representatives of the Civil Aviation Ministry and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) met senior IndiGo officials on Thursday to discuss corrective measures. IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers told staff that restoring punctuality would not be an “easy target”, acknowledging the depth of the disruption.

The scale of cancellations was significant across major airports: 118 flights in Mumbai, 100 in Bengaluru, 75 in Hyderabad, 35 in Kolkata, 26 in Chennai and 11 in Goa, with several other airports also reporting last-minute cancellations, according to PTI. On Wednesday, at least 150 flights were cancelled.

IndiGo told DGCA that it expects to fully normalise operations by February 10, Reuters reported.

IndiGo admitted it miscalculated crew requirements while implementing the revised Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) Phase 2 norms, which came into effect on November 1 following a court directive. The airline said that the new rules drastically increased the number of pilots needed, especially for night operations where slot availability is limited and stricter fatigue norms for pilot safety apply.

Under the new FDTL rules, the definition of night duty was changed from midnight–5 am to midnight–6 am, increasing the number of shifts classified as night duty. The change has temporarily been rolled back, along with the cap on two night landings per week.