A parliamentary committee has flagged a shortage of pilots and the absence of a strong passenger rights law in India, months after the country’s rapidly expanding aviation sector was rocked by the IndiGo crisis, marked by massive cancellations and delays.

The House panel has recommended that minimum pilot-to-aircraft ratios and crew buffer (surplus) capacity norms be set for all scheduled airlines.

India’s pilot-to-aircraft ratio is approximately 14 while the global benchmark is 18 to 20, the committee has underlined.

“Globally, airlines
maintain 20-25 per cent spare crew capacity to absorb operational shocks; Indian carriers operate at near-total utilisation,
allowing minor disruptions to cascade across networks,” the committee report says.

The reason for the IndiGo crisis of early December was the airline’s poor implementation of revised crew roster norms, which led to
a shortage of crew members.

The committee report does not specifically mention the IndiGo crisis but highlights the mass flight cancellations in December.

It underscores how domestic carriers operate with minimal buffer capacity, allowing even minor disruptions to ripple across the entire network.

The pilot shortage is not merely a problem of quantity but a systemic structural deficit, the committee has observed.

“Between 2020 and 2024, approximately 5,700 Commercial Pilot Licences were issued, against a projected requirement of 7,000 pilots between 2024 and 2026 and 25,000-30,000 over the next decade,” says the report, presented in Parliament last week by the standing committee on transport, tourism and culture.

“Airlines have resorted to hiring foreign pilots, with 236 temporary licences issued in 2025, a costly and unsustainable approach,” the report says, suggesting that this practice be phased out and domestic pilot output scaled up.

The committee has flagged the recent spate of air
crashes, including the Ahmedabad Boeing crash of June 12 last year, the Baramati chartered plane crash of January 28 and the air ambulance crash in Chatra (Jharkhand) on February 23.

Rights prod

The committee has also underlined the absence of a comprehensive, statutory passenger rights framework in India comparable to those in other big aviation markets.

A formal passenger rights charter, backed by an enforceable compensation framework, is overdue for a market dealing with more than 350 million passengers annually, it says.

During the submission of oral evidence, significant concerns were raised about passenger service quality, particularly on Air India’s international flights, the report adds.

While noting that the aviation ministry has informed it about the establishment of a 24x7 air service helpline, the committee observes that establishing a helpline is necessary but not sufficient.

It has recommended that the ministry prepare a comprehensive passenger rights charter, enforceable through statutory provisions under the Bharatiya Vayuyan Adhiniyam 2024.

This charter should cover compensation for flight cancellations and delays beyond specified thresholds; mandatory refunds for defective in-flight services; standardised compensation for baggage loss and damage; transparent complaint redress timelines; and penalties for non-compliance.

The committee has also cited a directorate-general of civil aviation audit of 754 commercial aircraft, conducted between January 2025 and February 2026, which revealed that 377 aircraft -- nearly half the fleet reviewed – had shown recurring technical defects.