IndiGo fiasco cost of govt's monopoly model: Rahul

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged on Friday that the IndiGo "fiasco" is the cost of the BJP-led Centre's "monopoly model" and asserted that India deserves fair competition in every sector, not "match-fixing monopolies".

In the wake of IndiGo cancelling more than 550 flights on Thursday and 400 on Friday, disrupting the travel plans of hundreds of passengers, Gandhi said ordinary Indians are paying the price in delays, cancellations and helplessness.

"IndiGo fiasco is the cost of this government's monopoly model. Once again, it's ordinary Indians who pay the price -- in delays, cancellations and helplessness," the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha said in a post on X.

"India deserves fair competition in every sector, not match-fixing monopolies," he added.

The former Congress chief also shared an article of his published in a newspaper last year, in which he had said the original East India Company wound up more than 150 years ago but the raw fear it then generated is back with a new breed of monopolists having taken its place.

Gandhi had asserted that a "new deal for progressive Indian business is an idea whose time has come".

Sharing the article on X on November 6 last year, Gandhi had said, "Choose your India: Play-Fair or Monopoly? Jobs or Oligarchies? Competence or Connections? Innovation or Intimidation? Wealth for many or the few?"

"I write on why a New Deal for Business isn't just an option. It is India's future," he had said, sharing his opinion piece.

Congress's media department head Pawan Khera said what is happening at the airports today is the result of a monopoly or a duopoly.

"It was said that people wearing slippers would board airplanes. But at airports, shoes and slippers are being exchanged between passengers and Indigo staff.

"Two people will run the party. Two people will run the government. Two people will run the businesses. So, this is what will happen," Khera said in a post on X.

He said "92 per cent of the share in our airline sector is in the hands of just two companies -- Indigo and Tata. The government had to bow down before them, and the new passenger safety guidelines had to be withdrawn due to pressure from these companies".

On the issue of monopoly, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra told reporters here, "All of us know that throughout the country, most things belong to only a few people and that is the doing of this government. That is not healthy. It is not healthy for the economy, it is not healthy for democracy and it is not healthy for the country."

Congress general secretary K C Venugopal alleged that the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "reduced a once-competitive industry to two players, prioritising corporate greed over passengers' interests".

In a post on X, he 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."

Venugopal claimed that "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".

IndiGo told the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday 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.

Acknowledging that the flight disruptions happening for the last few days are primarily due to misjudgment and planning gaps in implementing the second phase of the Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms, IndiGo also informed the regulator that there will be more cancellations till December 8 and from that day, there will also be a reduction in the number of flight services.

Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu has held a high-level review meeting to assess the situation of significant flight disruptions and expressed his displeasure at the way IndiGo handled the implementation of the new FDTL norms, despite having ample time.