This should be allowed to be posted becuase it is from one of the largest free market liberal voices in india (Shekar Gupta) it discusses how this crisis may force the government to get back in and how this may see the govnerment take over avitation. In general i feel this is a good liberal non anglo perpsective on how one of the biggest stories of privatization may fall prey to government internvetion because of their failure.
ewatta200 on
here can be three immediate reactions when you see the unravelling of IndiGo, arguably the greatest global brand built in post-reform India. All three come with some frustration.
The second, that whoever thinks of taking on the Government of India, and that too the Modi government, particularly when Vladimir Putin was in town is smoking something illegal. Remember those that allegedly triggered Shaheen Bagh protests while Donald Trump visited New Delhi in 2020 are still in jail without trial. And this, as the Holiday weeks are beginning.
And third, for those who’ve argued for decades for the government to get out of our lives, especially in areas served better by the private sector, how reckless did you have to be to do exactly the reverse? That holier-than-cow *mai-baap* *sarkar* is back to clean up the mess created by an arrogant, anti-customer private sector leader. This is a national tragedy.
You can quite believe that for all these years, as private aviation grew, took the Jet and Kingfisher meltdowns in its stride, and Air India was privatised, many in the ancient regime chafed at the loss of power. No planes to buy, no largesse of hirings, contracts, even purchases of consumables.
The Government of India, or what in my more frustrating moments I have described as *Sarkar-e-Hind*, given its self-image, had been rendered irrelevant in at least one area. Here the private sector built a globally envied success. Even in telecom, at least some vestiges of old power stay with the government: spectrum sales, one active PSU in BSNL, and a 49 percent equity in Vodafone-Idea. In civil aviation, it has nothing barring that insignificant helicopter charter. Most of the significant airports are privately owned and many others will soon be.
Now, the *sarkar* is back and how. The minister is strutting from one TV channel to another, promising to clean up the mess IndiGo created, threatening to indirectly take over the management of a listed company still valued at around Rs 2 lakh crore (two trillion) or $24 billion, despite a nearly 15 percent collapse in the wake of the crisis. This happens only in India: a private company messes up. But the guy explaining and taking questions is not its CEO but a minister.
The minister threatened to have the CEO fired, and had him summoned by the sector regulator for a highly publicised humiliation. He first withdrew in panic the regulations on pilots’ duty hours that his own ministry and regulator failed to enforce over nearly two years and then ordered a cut in flights till February, 2026. He’s now thinking aloud. A duopoly is bad, so his preference is to have five airlines instead with a hundred aircraft each.
Is he going to give IndiGo or Indian aviation, since the airline is two-thirds of it, its ‘Baby Bells’ moment. That harks back to the US anti-trust process breaking up AT&T’s monopoly into Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs). The minister should have his staff Google that. Indian aviation looks big, but it has enormous headroom for growth. Just IndiGo has another 1,400 jets on order, Air India approximately 570 and another couple of hundred between Akasa Air and SpiceJet. How can we talk of wishing for five airlines with 100 planes each when India can absorb five with 500 planes each?
cvorahkiin on
I’m an airline pilot from India. Indigo has been all around trash once it became big. Their flying is terrifying, they squeeze every last bit of work out of you. There are rumours that they have anti-poaching agreements with other foreign airlines where they refuse to hire Indigo pilots. Recently, our aviation ministry approached ICAO to formalise a 6 month notice period for every single airline in the world because pilots are leaving the country in hordes. That white paper has indigo written all over it. Their attrition is ridiculously high and they refuse to change their work culture, instead they want people to not be able to switch jobs. Literal bonded labour in 2025.
The reason why the DGCA brought these regulations in was because pilots started dying after COVID, we know of at least 3 who died AT WORK. We don’t know how many excess deaths happened.
Shekhar blames the government for not enforcing this. What is the government supposed to do when an airline “miscalculates” the amount of crew required for this, TWO YEARS after they said they’ll bring these new regulations in?
I have absolutely no sympathy for indigo. Elbers, the CEO deserves to get shredded for this. He had 2 years. That airline needed to come down a bit and they have been brought down spectacularly.
3 Comments
This should be allowed to be posted becuase it is from one of the largest free market liberal voices in india (Shekar Gupta) it discusses how this crisis may force the government to get back in and how this may see the govnerment take over avitation. In general i feel this is a good liberal non anglo perpsective on how one of the biggest stories of privatization may fall prey to government internvetion because of their failure.
here can be three immediate reactions when you see the unravelling of IndiGo, arguably the greatest global brand built in post-reform India. All three come with some frustration.
The first, the IndiGo founders and the management must be nuts, unthinking, or arrogant, as [some have argued,](https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-12-10/hubris-turned-indigo-success-into-chaos) to have let it go into such a rapid meltdown.
[](https://vdo.ai/contact?utm_medium=video&utm_term=theprint.in&utm_source=vdoai_logo)
The second, that whoever thinks of taking on the Government of India, and that too the Modi government, particularly when Vladimir Putin was in town is smoking something illegal. Remember those that allegedly triggered Shaheen Bagh protests while Donald Trump visited New Delhi in 2020 are still in jail without trial. And this, as the Holiday weeks are beginning.
And third, for those who’ve argued for decades for the government to get out of our lives, especially in areas served better by the private sector, how reckless did you have to be to do exactly the reverse? That holier-than-cow *mai-baap* *sarkar* is back to clean up the mess created by an arrogant, anti-customer private sector leader. This is a national tragedy.
You can quite believe that for all these years, as private aviation grew, took the Jet and Kingfisher meltdowns in its stride, and Air India was privatised, many in the ancient regime chafed at the loss of power. No planes to buy, no largesse of hirings, contracts, even purchases of consumables.
The Government of India, or what in my more frustrating moments I have described as *Sarkar-e-Hind*, given its self-image, had been rendered irrelevant in at least one area. Here the private sector built a globally envied success. Even in telecom, at least some vestiges of old power stay with the government: spectrum sales, one active PSU in BSNL, and a 49 percent equity in Vodafone-Idea. In civil aviation, it has nothing barring that insignificant helicopter charter. Most of the significant airports are privately owned and many others will soon be.
Now, the *sarkar* is back and how. The minister is strutting from one TV channel to another, promising to clean up the mess IndiGo created, threatening to indirectly take over the management of a listed company still valued at around Rs 2 lakh crore (two trillion) or $24 billion, despite a nearly 15 percent collapse in the wake of the crisis. This happens only in India: a private company messes up. But the guy explaining and taking questions is not its CEO but a minister.
The minister threatened to have the CEO fired, and had him summoned by the sector regulator for a highly publicised humiliation. He first withdrew in panic the regulations on pilots’ duty hours that his own ministry and regulator failed to enforce over nearly two years and then ordered a cut in flights till February, 2026. He’s now thinking aloud. A duopoly is bad, so his preference is to have five airlines instead with a hundred aircraft each.
Is he going to give IndiGo or Indian aviation, since the airline is two-thirds of it, its ‘Baby Bells’ moment. That harks back to the US anti-trust process breaking up AT&T’s monopoly into Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs). The minister should have his staff Google that. Indian aviation looks big, but it has enormous headroom for growth. Just IndiGo has another 1,400 jets on order, Air India approximately 570 and another couple of hundred between Akasa Air and SpiceJet. How can we talk of wishing for five airlines with 100 planes each when India can absorb five with 500 planes each?
I’m an airline pilot from India. Indigo has been all around trash once it became big. Their flying is terrifying, they squeeze every last bit of work out of you. There are rumours that they have anti-poaching agreements with other foreign airlines where they refuse to hire Indigo pilots. Recently, our aviation ministry approached ICAO to formalise a 6 month notice period for every single airline in the world because pilots are leaving the country in hordes. That white paper has indigo written all over it. Their attrition is ridiculously high and they refuse to change their work culture, instead they want people to not be able to switch jobs. Literal bonded labour in 2025.
The reason why the DGCA brought these regulations in was because pilots started dying after COVID, we know of at least 3 who died AT WORK. We don’t know how many excess deaths happened.
Shekhar blames the government for not enforcing this. What is the government supposed to do when an airline “miscalculates” the amount of crew required for this, TWO YEARS after they said they’ll bring these new regulations in?
I have absolutely no sympathy for indigo. Elbers, the CEO deserves to get shredded for this. He had 2 years. That airline needed to come down a bit and they have been brought down spectacularly.