NEW DELHI: India’s aviation regulator on Saturday imposed a record ₹22.2 crore penalty on IndiGo and issued warnings to six senior executives, including the chief operating officer, after its inquiry found the airline’s “overriding focus on maximising utilisation” of crew and aircraft through aggressive cost-cutting drove December’s operational meltdown that stranded over 300,000 passengers. Stranded passengers search for their luggage after IndiGo cancelled several flights, at the Kempegowda International Airport, in Bengaluru on Dec. 5, 2025. (PTI) The Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) four-member inquiry committee determined that “over-optimisation of operations, inadequate regulatory preparedness along with deficiencies in system software support and shortcomings in management structure and operational control” caused the crisis that saw 2,507 flights cancelled and 1,852 delayed between December 3 and 5 last year. The findings confirm warnings from pilot associations and aviation experts that IndiGo’s pursuit of maximum crew and aircraft utilisation with minimal operational buffers created a crisis that it could have avoided, especially since the tighter crew rest (FDTL) rules were unveiled more than two years before they …