Interglobe Aviation 's IndiGo brand witnessed a decline in its domestic market share during October, with the airline's share dropping to 63.6% from the previous 65.6%. This represents a decrease of 2 percentage points for India's largest airline by passenger volume.

Market Share Performance

The following table illustrates IndiGo's market share movement:

Industry Context

The decline in market share suggests increased competitive pressure in India's domestic aviation market. IndiGo has traditionally maintained a dominant position in the sector, making this reduction noteworthy for industry observers and stakeholders.

Market Position

Despite the decline, IndiGo continues to hold a substantial majority share of the domestic aviation market at 63.6%. The airline remains the market leader, though the gap with competitors appears to have narrowed during the October period.

The market share data reflects the dynamic nature of India's aviation sector, where airlines compete intensively for passenger traffic across domestic routes.

Interglobe Aviation has implemented significant revisions to its pilot compensation structure, hiking allowances by up to ₹2,000 effective January 1, following severe flight disruptions caused by pilot rostering challenges. The country's largest airline faced operational chaos that forced cancellation of more than 1,600 flights on a single day due to inadequate planning in implementing revised Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms.

Latest Flight Cancellations

IndiGo cancelled 118 flights across its network on Monday due to bad weather and operational reasons. Of these cancellations, six flight services were cancelled due to operational reasons, while 112 flights were cancelled due to adverse weather conditions at various airports.

The airline issued a travel advisory stating that foggy conditions remain across Delhi and several airports in northern India, with visibility yet to improve fully. Flight departures and arrivals are being sequenced to ensure steady and orderly movement during the challenging weather conditions.

Comprehensive Allowance Revisions

The revised compensation structure introduces substantial increases across multiple allowance categories, with hikes ranging from ₹25 to ₹2,000. The changes specifically target domestic layover, deadhead, night allowances, and introduce a new tail-swap allowance category.

Weather Operations and DGCA Guidelines

The DGCA has announced the period between December 10 and February 10 as the official fog window this winter. As part of fog operations norms, airlines must mandatorily roster pilots trained to operate in low-visibility conditions and deploy CAT-IIIB-compliant aircraft fleet for such operations.

Category-III is an advanced navigation system that empowers aircraft to land under foggy conditions. Category-III-A enables landing with a runway visual range of 200 metres, while Category-III-B helps in landing with an RVR of under 50 metres.

Extended Duration and Additional Benefits

For layovers extending beyond 24 hours, captains will receive ₹150.00 per hour compared to ₹100.00 earlier, while first officers will get ₹75.00 instead of the previous ₹50.00. The airline has also doubled meal allowances during transit for captains from ₹500.00 to ₹1,000.00.

The introduction of tail-swap allowance addresses situations where scheduled aircraft are replaced with different aircraft, providing additional compensation for pilots managing these operational changes.

Strategic Response to Operational Challenges

Sources indicate that the latest hikes represent approximately 25.00% of the allowances that were reduced following the implementation of the second phase of FDTL norms. This suggests the airline is partially reversing previous cost-cutting measures while addressing pilot welfare concerns during the regulatory transition period.

The comprehensive allowance restructuring demonstrates IndiGo's recognition of pilot contributions during challenging operational periods and may serve to improve retention and satisfaction as the airline navigates both FDTL compliance requirements and weather-related operational disruptions.