IndiGo has announced higher pilot allowances across duty types, less than a month after a crucial change in roster norms crippled operations of India’s largest airline. The changes are effective 1 January 2026.
The airline operated by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. has announced revised pilot salary for domestic layovers, deadhead, overnight flights and domestic transit, according to a document seen by HT.com. The details are as under:
Domestic Layover Allowance
Deadhead Allowance
Deadhead allowance is compensation paid to pilots when they travel as passengers on a flight to reach a work location or return home. Although they are not flying the plane, they are “positioning” for duty. IndiGo pays a fixed rate per scheduled flight hour for this travel time.
Night Allowance
Night allowance is additional pay for flight duties performed after midnight to compensate for the physiological strain. For IndiGo pilots, this is now a fixed hourly rate ( ₹2,000 for Captains) applicable to hours flown between 00:00 IST and 06:00 IST.
Tailswap Allowance
Tail-swap allowance compensates pilots for the extra workload involved in switching aircraft (changing “tails”) during a single duty period. This covers the physical effort of moving crew and baggage to a different plane and performing new pre-flight checks. IndiGo now pays a flat fee per occurrence for this specific change.
The tailswap allowance is applicable for all combinations of operating sectors and/or deadhead sectors, within the same duty period. It’s not applicable for Deadhead to Deadhead sectors.
Transit allowance (domestic)
Transit allowance compensates pilots for the waiting time on the ground between flights during a single duty period. For IndiGo pilots, this is now an hourly payment applicable for domestic halts exceeding 90 minutes, paying for the idle time spent at the airport before operating the next flight sector.
The transit allowance is applicable on a pro-rata basis for all domestic halts beyond 90 minuted at all domestic stations irrespective of a lounge tie-up. If there’s a delay of more than four hours, a hotel shall be provided.
There’s no change in the international transit allowance policy.
IndiGo Flight Crisis
In early December 2025, IndiGo—India’s largest airline operated by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd.—suffered an unprecedented operational meltdown that paralysed domestic air travel and left thousands of passengers stranded across airports in India. The crisis saw the cancellation of over 5,000 flights within a single week, with roughly 1,600 flights grounded on 5 December alone.
The crisis was primarily triggered by a clash between IndiGo’s high-utilisation business model and new Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) regulations for pilots to get enough rest between flights. The new rules are:
1. Increased weekly rest period: The mandatory weekly rest period for flight crew has been extended from 36 hours to 48 consecutive hours. This significantly reduces the available time for crew rostering.
2. Stricter Night Operation Limits: The definition of “night duty” has been extended to cover the period from 00:00 to 06:00 hours (it was previously 00:00 to 05:00 hours).
- The maximum number of permitted night landings has been sharply reduced from six to two per week for a pilot.
- Pilots are also restricted to a maximum of two consecutive night duties.
3. Maximum flight time reduction (for night operations): Maximum flight time is capped at 8 hours per day for operations encroaching upon the night period (00:00 to 06:00), with a maximum duty period of 10 hours.
These stricter rules reduce the total flying hours and number of night flights a crew member can operate, placing a significant strain on an airline like IndiGo, which has a high-frequency, high-utilisation model, especially for late-night and early-morning “red-eye” services.
On Monday, IndiGo shares rose 0.27% to ₹5,085.60 apiece on the BSE even as the benchmark Sensex ended the day 0.41% lower at 84,695.54 points.
