Dhaka: IndiGo, India’s largest airline, will raise pilot allowances across various duty types starting January 1, 2026, following a month of operational challenges that led to mass flight cancellations.

The airline, operated by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, has revised allowances for domestic layovers, deadhead flights, overnight duties, and transit.

Domestic layover allowances for Captains will increase from ₹2,000 to ₹3,000 per 10-24 hours, while First Officers will see their allowance rise from ₹1,000 to ₹1,500.

Deadhead flight allowances for Captains and First Officers will be revised from ₹3,000 and ₹1,500 to ₹4,000 and ₹2,000, respectively.

The night allowance will now be a fixed ₹2,000 per night hour for Captains and ₹1,000 for First Officers, replacing the previous 1.5x multiplier on block hours.

Tail-swap allowance, a new introduction, will provide ₹1,500 for Captains and ₹750 for First Officers when aircraft swaps exceed 90 minutes during a single duty period.

The airline also introduced an hourly transit allowance for domestic halts longer than 90 minutes.

These changes follow more than 5,000 flight cancellations last month due to severe crew shortages, exacerbated by new Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) introduced by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which required longer crew rest periods. IndiGo’s failure to hire sufficient pilots left the airline without enough crew to meet its schedule.

The revisions aim to address the airline's staffing issues and improve operational efficiency moving forward.

-B