With 10% reduction in flights, IndiGo winter schedule at last year's level

IndiGo's winter flight schedule sees a sharp year-on-year increase, but a planned government cap and pilot constraints may force the airline to scale back operations

IndiGo Airlines increased its domestic flights by 8.8 per cent for its winter schedule between October 26, 2025 and March 28, 2026 over the same period of previous year (October 27, 2024 to March 29, 2025), adding 25,166 flights to hit a total of 309,790 flights, according to data from leading global aviation analytics company Cirium. 

However, from last year, it wet-leased some planes (where you get crew members too) from Smartlynx and Corendon Airlines for a short while in order to boost its fleet. If that number is taken into account, the increase in the winter schedule this year comes to over 4 per cent, adding 12,156 flights. The company which wet-leased planes for 13,158 flights from Smartlynx last winter schedule has now brought the number down to just 108 flights. It, however, continues to use the planes from Corendon this winter. In terms of seats, IndiGo’s own fleet (without the ones from the we lease) represents an increase of a substantial 12 per cent in the winter schedule over the previous one, with as many as 6.1 million scheduled additional seats on offer. And if both domestic and international flights are taken together, the airline sees an increase in winter schedule fights by over 9.5 per cent, adding 30,720 flights. 

However, the numbers could get impacted with the civil aviation ministry now planning to cut IndiGo’s winter schedule by 10 per cent. If that cut is imposed on the entire winter month schedule, it could mean over 30,000 scheduled flights off the grid, bringing its schedule close to the previous winter schedule. Moreover, with two months of the winter schedule already over, if the directive is only for the remaining flights till March, the number of flights off the grid could be much lower. 

While the aggressive expansion of IndiGo led to a serious crises as the airline did not have enough pilots to fly the enhanced number of flights due to the new FDTL (Flight Duty Time limitations) rules making it mandatory for more hours of rest, other airline competitors managed to tide over the change in rules smoothly. 

Air India and Air India Express, which together are less than half the size of IndiGo, on the other hand, have gone for a modest increase of 4.4 per cent in winter flight schedule, adding only 5,977 flights to the previous winter schedule. Even here, it is Air India Express which led the expansion, with its number of scheduled flights going up sharply by over 24 per cent while that of Air India fell marginally by 1.8 per cent. In terms of seats also, the growth is modest at 4.5 per cent, translating to 24.5 million seats.

The other two players, SpiceJet and Akasa Air, have made no attempt to go for an aggressive expansion. Akasa has added only 1,470 flights in the domestic skies this winter over the previous year when it was at 20,000 flights. And SpiceJet has added just 1,136 flights to its schedule, going up to only 20,635 flights for this winter.