‘Domestic Cargo Absorbs FDTL Shock, but Schedule Sensitivities Persist’

Balagopal Balachandran, National Head – Air Freight, FEI Cargo said, “While the immediate impact on cargo has been contained, the disruption driven by revised FDTL norms has underlined existing vulnerabilities in domestic logistics, particularly for time-critical cargo flows. During the affected week, shippers and forwarders partially mitigated capacity gaps by shifting volumes to alternate airlines, rail, and road. However, pharmaceuticals , perishables, e-commerce remained exposed, highlighting a schedule driven reliability challenge rather than an absolute capacity deficit. The impact was concentrated on Tier-2 and Tier-3 routes where IndiGo’s frequency dominance is significant. Historically, IndiGo’s domestic capacity utilization has been highest on early morning and late evening flights in comparison to their rest of the day departures. Looking ahead to 2026, the issue is unlikely to evolve into a structural capacity shortfall but will remain a schedule centric challenge. Let us keep a close watch on how the situation unfolds.”