Civil Aviation Ministry Caps Airfares Amid IndiGo Flight Crisis: Passenger Protection Measures Implemented

New Delhi:

The Civil Aviation Ministry on Saturday announced a cap on airfares to address the surge in airline ticket prices following extensive delays and cancellations of IndiGo's domestic flights. The ministry released a statement indicating it had taken serious note of concerns regarding unusually high airfares charged by certain airlines during the ongoing disruption.

"In order to protect passengers from any form of opportunistic pricing, the Ministry has invoked its regulatory powers to ensure fair and reasonable fares across all affected routes," the statement declared.

"An official directive has been issued to all airlines mandating strict adherence to the fare caps that have now been prescribed. These caps will remain in force until the situation fully stabilises. The objective of this directive is to maintain pricing discipline in the market, prevent any exploitation of passengers in distress, and ensure that citizens who urgently need to travel — including senior citizens, students, and patients — are not subjected to financial hardship during this period," it continued.

The ministry also stated it would continue to monitor fare levels through real-time data and actively coordinate with airlines and online travel platforms.

In a separate announcement, the ministry directed IndiGo to process all passenger refunds promptly. "The Ministry has mandated that the refund process for all cancelled or disrupted flights must be fully completed by 8:00 PM on Sunday, 7 December 2025. Airlines have also been instructed not to levy any rescheduling charges for passengers whose travel plans were affected by cancellations," the statement noted.

Hundreds of IndiGo flights were cancelled today as the crisis surrounding the airline entered its fifth day. Operating 2,300 flights daily with a fleet exceeding 400 aircraft, IndiGo has experienced a significant decline in punctuality due to operational disruptions expected to persist for several more days. The current crisis primarily stems from an unanticipated shortage of pilots resulting from planning deficiencies, with authorities closely monitoring the situation.

Scenes of chaos have unfolded at airports nationwide as IndiGo's domestic passengers express frustration over delayed or cancelled flights.

On Friday night, IndiGo issued an apology statement on X: "We do deeply apologise and understand how difficult the past few days have been for many of you. While this will not get resolved overnight, we assure you that we will do everything in our capacity to help you in the meantime and to bring our operations back to normal at the earliest."

The airline confirmed that refunds for all cancelled flights would be processed automatically to travelers' original payment methods.

Also on Friday, the airline's Chief Executive Officer stated that "full normalisation of domestic flight operations was expected between December 10 and 15, though IndiGo cautions that recovery will take time due to the scale of operations."

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said on Friday that IndiGo's operational meltdown is "on the verge of getting resolved."

In an exclusive conversation with NDTV, Naidu explained, "I can say it is on the verge of getting resolved. The major congestion has happened in the metro airports... and we are seeing all the metro airports, most of them - Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai - they have been cleared right now of all the backlog of passengers that was there for the past two days. The other ones will also be finished by tonight. And Indigo is going to start operations with limited capacity again from tomorrow."

"As the operations settle down, they are going to increase the capacity. But in terms of passengers not facing a problem, you will see that happening from tomorrow. And the full capacity of IndiGo operations getting back will probably take a couple more days," he assured.