IndiGo vacates over 700 slots at Delhi, Mumbai and other airports after DGCA's 10% cut order in winter schedule

Aviation giant IndiGo has vacated over 700 slots at domestic airports including Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai. The move follows a 10% reduction in IndiGo’s winter flight schedule, ordered by regulatory watchdog DGCA, after severe operational disruptions in early December that affected thousands of passengers. Slots is a specific time period allocated to an airline for takeoff and landing. Of the 717 slots vacated, 364 are at six major metro airports: Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Hyderabad and Bengaluru account for the largest share of the vacated slots, according to sources cited by PTI. The slots vacated span across January through March, with January and March seeing the highest numbers at 361 each, while February has 43 slots vacated. Earlier on Thursday, the civil aviation ministry invited other airlines to request the use of these slots. "IndiGo has submitted a list of 717 slots to the ministry, which it has vacated after the domestic winter schedule was reduced by 10 per cent in early December last year," one source said.Usually, the airline operates over 2,200 flights a day, but scaled back services to comply with the DGCA directive aimed at reducing last-minute cancellations and improving operational stability. Under its 2025-26 winter schedule, IndiGo was permitted 15,014 weekly flights, averaging 2,144 daily. The 10 per cent cut has reduced this to 1,930 flights per day. For comparison, the airline operated around 2,022 flights per day during its summer schedule. In early December, IndiGo faced major disruptions, cancelling 2,507 flights and delaying 1,852, impacting more than 300,000 passengers. Following this, DGCA trimmed the airline’s winter schedule, prompting the release of the slots.