New Delhi: Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday (December 6) urging him to order a joint parliamentary committee or judicial investigation into the unprecedented nationwide disruption of air services following the Directorate General of Civil Aviation's (DGCA’s) flight duty time limitation (FDTL) mandate and the consequent surge in airfares.

In his letter, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) MP underlined that a safety rule meant to protect pilots and passengers was sabotaged into chaos, used to unleash ransom-level airfares, and diluted after collapse. Further, Brittas claimed the "implementation of the norms displayed a catastrophic lack of operational planning, transition preparedness, impact assessment and regulatory foresight".

“The sudden cancellation and delay of a massive number of flights by the country’s largest airline, IndiGo, which commands a dominant 63–65% share of the domestic market, has effectively paralysed air travel nationwide. Given this extraordinary concentration of market power, the failure of a single private operator translated into a failure of the entire system. Thousands of passengers were stranded, forced to sleep on terminal floors and miss medical emergencies, bereavements, examinations, weddings and vital employment commitments. The resulting human distress and economic loss are both unprecedented and indefensible,” the letter stated.

It added: "Even more disturbing, after the system collapsed under predictable pressure, the very safety norms initially enforced were hurriedly diluted or withdrawn, raising serious concerns that passenger safety was subordinated to commercial expediency."

Also read: 'IndiGo Pilots Will Now Fly with Reduced Rest and Increased Fatigue': Pilot Body Slams DGCA

The detailed letter addresses issues related to regulatory failure, duopolistic control of the aviation sector, dilution of safety norms, unchecked profiteering by airlines and the government’s persistent refusal to act despite clear statutory powers and parliamentary standing committee recommendations. "The near-monopoly of Indian airspace by two carriers and the simultaneous privatisation and commercial operation of major airports by corporate entities has contributed to the choking of opportunities for newer or regional airports. "

"I respectfully submit that this matter can no longer be addressed through internal reviews or advisory circulars. The credibility of governance itself demands an independent, transparent and time-bound inquiry with full access to regulatory files, airline preparedness records and pricing data. I therefore earnestly urge your good self to take steps to constitute either a joint parliamentary committee or a judicial commission of inquiry to comprehensively investigate the regulatory failures, airline preparedness, dilution of safety norms, fare escalation patterns, the policy framework that has enabled such extreme concentration of market power and to examine the urgent need for a statutory Passenger Bill of Rights guaranteeing automatic compensation, fair treatment and transparent pricing during mass disruptions," the CPI (M) MP wrote.

His full letter is produced below:

Shri Narendra Modi

Hon'ble Prime Minister of India

Respected Shri Narendra Modi Ji,

Sub: Request for a Joint Parliamentary Committee or Judicial Inquiry into the unprecedented disruption of civil aviation and the exploitative surge in Airfares following DGCA mandate - reg:

I write to your good self with a deep sense of anguish on behalf of millions of air travellers across the country who have, over the past several days, been subjected to an unprecedented collapse of civil aviation services and a parallel episode of what can only be described as systematic economic exploitation through unbridled airfare escalation. The scale, speed and severity of the disruption following the enforcement of revised Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) norms by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation have exposed deep structural failures in regulatory preparedness, market oversight and consumer protection, leaving ordinary passengers dangerously vulnerable.

The sudden cancellation and delay of a massive number of flights by the country's largest airline, IndiGo, which commands a dominant 63-65% share of the domestic market, has effectively paralysed air travel nationwide. Given this extraordinary concentration of market power, the failure of a single private operator translated into a failure of the entire system. Thousands of passengers. were stranded, forced to sleep on terminal floors and miss medical emergencies, bereavements, examinations, weddings and vital employment commitments. The resulting human distress and economic loss are both unprecedented and indefensible.

This crisis did not arise from any natural calamity, war or external shock. It followed the implementation of revised FDTL norms. While intended to enhance safety by preventing pilot fatigue, the implementation of the norms displayed a catastrophic lack of operational planning, transition preparedness, impact assessment and regulatory foresight. Even more disturbing, after the system collapsed under predictable pressure, the very safety norms initially enforced were hurriedly diluted or withdrawn, raising serious concerns that passenger safety was subordinated to commercial expediency.

What transformed this operational failure into a national scandal is the manner in which the disruption was converted into a profiteering opportunity. Domestic airfares skyrocketed to extortionate levels that defy any logic of cost, demand or fairness. Emergency travellers, students, workers and families in distress were forced to either abandon essential travel or pay ransom-like sums for basic connectivity. This surge was not confined to IndiGo alone; other carriers too raised fares sharply in what appears to be parallel price escalation under the cloak of algorithmic pricing, raising grave apprehensions of coordinated exploitation, abuse of dominant position and regulatory failure.

Profiteering by the second largest domestic airlines, Air India, was not limited to fare hikes alone. Numerous international passengers reportedly had to cancel their Air India tickets after their connected domestic legs operated by IndiGo were cancelled. This double burden of cancellations and fare surges enabled windfall gains at the public's expense.

It is now evident that what passes as "competition" in Indian aviation is in reality a near-lockout by two dominant players, a duopoly unrivalled even among major global aviation markets. In China, the three largest airlines together do not cumulatively cross 60% market share, and in the United States no single domestic airline holds more than roughly 25% share, underscoring how extreme and unusual India's duopolistic structure is. This extreme concentration has been worsened by the privatisation of Air India.

The structural reasons for this crisis go deeper than airline concentration. The near-monopoly of Indian airspace by two carriers and the simultaneous privatization and commercial operation of major airports by corporate entities has contributed to the choking of opportunities for newer or regional airports. Despite being fully operational, Kannur International Airport in Kerala continues to be denied "point-of-call" status for foreign carriers, even as the newly constructed Mopa Airport in Goa has been permitted such access. The airline-airport cartel appears to be shaping aviation access, undermining regional connectivity and equity.

The operational collapse must also be viewed as the inevitable consequence of regulatory and corporate negligence and collusion in failing to prepare for structural reforms. The DGCA revised FDTL norms in January 2024 to address pilot fatigue and enhance safety; the new norms were notified on May 31, 2024, with initial compliance deadline June 1, 2024, subsequently deferred, and a phased roll-out scheduled between July 1, 2025 and November 1, 2025, Despite this long lead time, neither the regulator nor IndiGo ensured adequate recruitment or rostering of pilots. This failure, which even any junior official could have predicted would cause disruption, reflects gross regulatory and corporate negligence and collusion. In effect, DGCA and IndiGo "worked hand in glove" not to ensure safe compliance, but to engineer a controlled collapse that allowed opportunistic profiteering.

It is particularly disturbing that despite repeated Government claims that airfares are 'deregulated', Rule 135(4) of the Aircraft Rules, 1937, explicitly empowers DGCA to issue binding directions against excessive or predatory pricing and oligopolistic practices. Further, Article 73 of the Constitution extends the executive power of the Union to matters on which Parliament has legislative power, including civil aviation. Yet, in repeated replies to my questions in the Rajya Sabha, the Government has evaded this responsibility and astonishingly maintained that no excessive pricing occurred, despite overwhelming public evidence. The DGCA's Tariff Monitoring Unit, monitoring only a limited sample of routes on a random basis, has reportedly never detected violations in recent years, raising grave doubts about the seriousness of regulatory oversight.

Even more troubling is the conspicuous silence of the Government on why the categorical recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture for route-specific airfare capping and for the creation of a separate statutory regulatory authority to monitor and control air ticket pricing made after the Committee explicitly found that self-regulation by airlines has failed have not been implemented to date. This question remains unanswered and was evaded by Government even when raised by me in the Rajya Sabha as recently as on 01.12.2025.

The contrast with international practice is stark. In the United States and across Europe, such a meltdown would never degenerate into an unregulated feast for airlines and hotels. Passenger protection laws mandate free rebooking, refunds, accommodation, meals and statutory compensation, while price-gouging laws immediately cap hotel and transport charges. There, a distressed traveller is treated as a citizen to be protected. Here, the citizen has been abandoned to fend for himself. In the United States, the Department of Transportation's Passenger Bill of Rights obligates airlines to rebook stranded passengers at no additional cost, provide full refunds, etc. Across Europe, EU Regulation 261 goes even further by mandating free meals, free hotels, free transport, automatic rebooking and statutory compensation ranging from €250 to €600 per passenger for cancellations within the airline's control.

This episode therefore reflects not merely the failure of one airline, but a deeper crisis of regulatory credibility, unchecked market concentration, consumer exploitation and weak enforcement architecture. If this episode passes without independent scrutiny, it will establish a dangerous precedent where passenger suffering, diluted safety and predatory pricing are normalised.

In this grave backdrop, I respectfully submit that this matter can no longer be addressed through internal reviews or advisory circulars. The credibility of governance itself demands an independent, transparent and time-bound inquiry with full access to regulatory files, airline preparedness records and pricing data. I therefore earnestly urge your good self to take steps to constitute either a Joint Parliamentary Committee or a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to comprehensively investigate the regulatory failures, airline preparedness, dilution of safety norms, fare escalation patterns, the policy framework that has enabled such extreme concentration of market power and to examine the urgent need for a statutory Passenger Bill of Rights guaranteeing automatic compensation, fair treatment and transparent pricing during mass disruptions.

I shall be grateful for your urgent and considered attention to this matter of national importance.

Thanking you

Yours faithfully,

John Brittas

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