The Competition Commission of India has ordered a probe by its Director General into the sudden cancellation of hundreds of flights by IndiGo Airlines last December to decide if it the company abused its dominant position in the airline market.
The Commission noted in an order on Wednesday (February 4) that there was a “prima facie contravention of the provisions of the” Competition Act 2002, in the actions of the airline. It asked the DG to submit his probe report within 90 days of receipt of the order.
The Commission said that the IndiGo’s “conduct…seems to be prima facie causing an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India” and it “is of the opinion that a prima facie case of contravention of the provisions of Sections 4(2)(a)(i) and 4(2)(b)(i) of the Act by the OP is made out in the…matter”.
The order came on a plea by a Bengaluru resident Kartikeya Rawal who had booked a return journey on the Delhi–Goa–Bengaluru sector for December 5, 2025 on IndiGo.
He submitted that the airline cancelled the flights a few hours before the scheduled departure time, and no alternate travel arrangement was provided. When he tried to book alternate flights, he noticed that not only were the other airlines’ offering seats at higher chares, but even IndiGo was offering seats “at a much higher fare than the usual fare on the same sectors.”
Rawal said he had to ultimately wait for 2 days and then finally travel back to Bangalore on a much more expensive fare of INR 17000/- on a different IndiGo flight. He contended that Indigo’s conduct of cancelling “its own flights on its own accord and then overcharging the customers is an abuse of dominance and prohibited under the provisions of the Act.”
The Commission, which perused data provided by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on airline operations said that “on the basis of substantial and sustained market share, wide network reach with exclusive operations on a significant number of city-pair routes, comparatively larger fleet and strong financial performance,” it “is of prima facie view that” Indigo enjoys a position of dominance in the…market for domestic air passenger transport services in India”.
With the flights cancelled, “passengers who had booked tickets were left with no real choice but to accept last-minute cancellations,” the Commission said adding “passengers were left to seek alternatives, on their own, at significantly higher prices.”g
It said that “iven IndiGo’s dominant position, consumers were effectively locked in and lacked viable alternatives which appears to be in violation of the provisions of Section 4(2)(a)(i) of the Act.”
The Commission added, “additionally, by cancelling thousands of flights constituting a significant portion of the scheduled capacity, IndiGo effectively withheld its service from the market, creating an artificial scarcity, limiting consumer access to air travel during peak demand. Such conduct by a dominant enterprise may be viewed as restricting the provision of services under Section 4(2)(b)(i) of the Act.”
