IndiGo cancels 400+ flights Saturday; pilot body slams DGCA relief

• IndiGo cancelled over 400 flights on Saturday from Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, and Hyderabad airports due to new flight duty and rest period norms.
• This follows over 1,000 cancellations on Friday, leading IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers to apologize for passenger inconvenience.
• DGCA granted temporary relaxations to IndiGo on FDRP norms, adjusting night duty definition and allowing more night landings.
• The pilots' body, ALPA India, strongly objected to DGCA's "selective and unsafe" relief, citing heightened risk to passengers and undermining judicial authority.
• The Ministry of Civil Aviation placed the revised FDTL CAR implementation in abeyance, which ALPA India criticized as contradicting court orders.

Why It Matters: IndiGo cancellations due to pilot duty norms spark safety debate and regulatory conflict.