NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday alleged that the IndiGo “fiasco” is the cost of this government’s “monopoly model” and asserted that India deserves fair competition in every sector, not match-fixing monopolies.
In the wake of IndiGo cancelling over 550 flights on Thursday alone and 400 flights on Friday, disrupting the travel plans of hundreds of passengers, Gandhi said it is ordinary Indians who pay the price in delays, cancellations and helplessness.
“IndiGo fiasco is the cost of this Govt’s monopoly model. Once again, it’s ordinary Indians who pay the price - in delays, cancellations and helplessness,” the Leader of Opposition said in a post on X. “India deserves fair competition in every sector, not match-fixing monopolies,” Gandhi asserted.
IndiGo, on Thursday, told aviation watchdog DGCA that operations are expected to be fully stabilised by February 10, 2026, and sought temporary relaxations in flight duty norms on a day when the country’s largest airline cancelled more than 550 flights, disrupting the travel plans of hundreds of passengers.
Slamming the government, Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal said the Modi government has reduced a once-competitive industry to two players, prioritising corporate greed over passengers’ interests. Taking to X, he wrote, “550+ IndiGo flights cancelled in a single day is a clear consequence of the Government sleeping at the wheel while a duopoly established a deadly chokehold on India’s aviation sector. Lakhs of passengers are left helpless at airports for over 8 hours, only to be told their flights are cancelled. What is the mechanism that @MoCA_GoI has set up to ensure passengers get full refunds for these cancelled flights? How are they ensuring Indigo is looking after passengers’ well-being?”
The Congress leader further said from the collapse of Jet Airways and Go First to Air India’s monopoly merger - every move that has contributed to this disastrous outcome has happened under their watch.
“As a result, ordinary passengers in need of urgent travel can no longer afford plane tickets, a situation of zero accountability for either the airlines or the @MoCA_GoI, and now a nationwide shutdown of flights. This is not a routine operational hiccup, it is a Government-approved systemic failure that will happen again and again unless drastic measures are undertaken immediately,” said Venugopal.
Calling the IndiGo situation a national crisis, Congress MP Karti P Chidambaram said that the government should make a statement on the floor of Parliament explaining what has led to this crisis and what the government is doing to solve it, as it affects passengers countrywide.