Industry Odisha Bureau, March 31: With the official fiscal year (FY) of 2025-26 that ends today in India, and the rating agency ICRA having reportedly projected earlier a heavy loss of about $2.16 billion (around Rs 18,000 crore) in the Indian aviation sector, various reasons are being attributed to such a grim scenario starting from the Pahalgam massacre of innocent tourists by the terrorists followed by Operation Sindoor against Pakistan last year (2025) to the ongoing tug of war between US-Israel and Iran in the West Asia region since February 28 this year (2026).
It all appears that India’s aviation sector has undergone a turbulent tryst with its financial destiny destined for a crestfallen loss.
As informed by various travel agencies to media, the Pahalgam mayhem (ruthlessly committed by the terrorists in April 2025) resulted in cancellation of nearly 90% of flight bookings owing to safety concerns among the terrified tourists who were earlier eager to visit Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
During the Operation Sindoor unleashed by the Indian defence forces against Pakistan in May 2025 post-Pahalgam terror attack, over 30 airports located in the northern India zone had to be reportedly shut for security reasons and precautionary measures hitting hard flight operations of a maximum number of flight firms.
It has further been reported that the reportedly unplanned closure took a heavy toll on the financial losses suffered by the aviation industry due to massive flight cancellations as well as re-scheduling and re-routings.
The travel agencies also informed that the airlines like Air India and IndiGo had to waive off the fees meant for cancellation as well as rescheduling.
It did not end there, as a catastrophe was yet in store in June 2025, that was literally nightmarish. It is none other than the Air India’s London flight’s bone-chilling crash in Ahmedabad soon after the take-off that instantly killed 241 passengers on board (miraculously one passenger had ejected out alive).
This jolted Air India that reportedly cancelled its 83 flights in the week of occurrence, while all its Boeing fleet had to remain grounded in accordance with the DGCA’s strict inspection orders as well as maintenance checks along with unavailability of adequate number of aircrafts.
After undergoing the harrowing experience, Air India reportedly resumed a partial service from August 1, 2025 till its operations were fully restored reportedly by October 1, 2025. By then the passengers were reportedly left high and dry let alone the colossal financial loss accrued by Air India.
The DGCA’s stricter norms of flight duty time limitations (FDTL) added further fuel to the fire. Even though announced in January 2025, the FDTL norms were implemented phase-wise from July. When it was fully enforced in November 2025, it resulted in acute shortage of pilots and crew members owing to the reduced flying hours and increased rest times laid down in the FDTL norms.
Thus, India witnessed the unprecedented IndiGo flight disruptions in a massive manner between December 3 and 10 last year. While daily flight cancellations reportedly soared to 1,000, nearly 17 lakh domestic air passengers were adversely affected. The vehement protests against such a chaotic situation reportedly forced the airline not only to offer compensation vouchers, but also got amply penalised by the DGCA reportedly to a tune of Rs 22 crore.
The new year of 2026 dawned, but the ray of new hopes got eclipsed soon after the West Asia conflict broke out since February 28. It not only disrupted the flight operations to and fro (India & Gulf airports), but also recorded the reportedly sharp spike in aviation turbine fuel (ATF). With the closure of airspaces in the war-torn zones, the flights have to reportedly bear the extra burden because of the round-about and lengthy alternate routes to other destinations for which the international passengers have reportedly to be slapped with extra fuel charges on every ticket raising the eye-brows of already fuming and frowning passengers.
Under such circumstances, experts foresee a bleak future and turbulent months ahead for the Indian aviation industry which has already been fleeced and more pounds of flesh are expected to be sacrificed in the months ahead of the Indian fiscal year of 2026-2027.
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