IndiGo’s recent disruption is not an aberration but a symptom of India’s aviation graveyard. Airlines here don’t collapse by accident — they are strangled by policy. The list of casualties is long: Kingfisher, Jet Airways, Go First, SpiceJet’s repeated ICU visits. IndiGo, too, is one ATF spike or regulatory whim away from obituary. Six killers stalk every carrier: exorbitant fuel taxes, crippling airport charges, fares forced below cost, weak balance sheets, suffocating regulation, and rupee depreciation. Together, they engineer failure. Contrast this with Emirates or Singapore Airlines, built as instruments of national strategy. India instead builds taxes, paperwork, and bankruptcy tribunals, while pretending to be a deregulated market. Fare caps and schemes like UDAN ensure airlines cannot breathe. Airlines don’t crash because of pilots. They crash because policymakers treat aviation like ration distribution. Unless this ecosystem is rebuilt, India will keep producing passengers — and funerals.
