As it gets ready to employ around 900 pilots over the course of the next year—an expansion the airline has never undertaken before—IndiGo, the biggest airline in India, is confronting one of the worst staffing issues in its history.
Even in its strongest growth years, IndiGo has never carried out a cockpit ramp-up of this kind, according to a Moneycontrol review of official statistics.
The closest equivalent, according to DGCA figures, was in the two years prior to the epidemic when IndiGo added almost 1,600 pilots and co-pilots between FY18 and FY19. Its pilot strength has changed since then. A recent Lok Sabha filing claims that IndiGo’s pilot count decreased from 5,463 in March to 5,085 in December.
FDTL regulations increase pressure
The new Flight Duty Time Limit (FDTL) regulations that went into effect on November 1 have made IndiGo’s labor shortage worse. The regulations, which were intended to enhance fatigue management, resulted in more than 5,000 cancellations throughout IndiGo’s network. On December 9, the government ordered a 10% capacity reduction.
The airline is rushing to replenish personnel strength due to the operational pressure.
An expensive bill
As it sets out to rebuild capacity, IndiGo will suffer a substantial financial blow. Assuming an annualized cost of Rs 62 lakh per pilot, a rough estimate indicates that the airline would have spent more than Rs 300 crore if it had increased recruiting sooner. IndiGo’s flying capacity decreased by 7% between March and December; if it had increased, it could have been able to prevent some of its present losses.
In the first half of FY25, the carrier spent Rs 4,095 crore on staff expenditures, thus an increase of Rs 300 crore would have increased its salary bill by over 7%. This would have increased its financial burden; for the half-year that ended in September, IndiGo recorded a loss of Rs 405 crore, as opposed to a profit of Rs 1,742 crore the previous year.
The lack of pilots makes things more complicated
The national pilot pipeline is getting tighter even as the airline is ready for record recruiting. According to the Lok Sabha reply, DGCA awarded 1,213 commercial pilot licenses (CPLs) in 2024—much fewer than the 1,622 licenses given in 2023 and just marginally more than 1,165 in 2022.
Cost dynamics make IndiGo’s goals even more difficult. The airline hired 5,038 pilots at a cost of Rs 3,121 crore in FY24, however it added 631 pilots during FY23 at a cost closer to Rs 1.3 crore per pilot rather than the estimated Rs 62 lakh. IndiGo’s effective acquisition cost for new pilots in FY24 was around Rs 1 crore, even after accounting for pay increases for current pilots.
Over the past eight years, IndiGo has historically paid an average of Rs 90 lakh each additional pilot, which reflects the premium required to draw in qualified cockpit staff in a competitive labor market. Given their much greater salary compared to junior first officers, who often make around or less than Rs 36 lakh per year in their early years, commanders put further strain.
Implications for the entire system
IndiGo’s employment decisions have an impact on the whole sector because it controls over two-thirds of India’s domestic aviation market. The airline’s capacity to stabilize its network under the new FDTL regime while hiring hundreds of pilots at high costs would influence not just IndiGo’s recovery path but also the aviation industry as a whole.
