Starting from January 1, 2026, IndiGo Airlines will be increasing pilots’ domestic layover, deadhead, transit and night allowance. The airline has also introduced a new tail swap allowance. The hikes will range from ₹25 to ₹2,000 depending upon the category, as per sources.
Earlier, captains were paid ₹2,000 in allowance for domestic layovers of 10.01 to 24 hours. This will be increased to ₹3,000. Similarly, the allowance for first officers in similar situations has been revised from ₹1,000 to ₹1,500. For each hour beyond the 24-hour limit, captains will receive an additional ₹150 per hour instead of ₹100. In the same situation, first officers will get ₹75 rather than ₹50.
Night allowance for captains and first officers has also been increased to ₹2,000 and ₹1,000, respectively. As per sources, the deadhead allowance for every scheduled block hour for a captain has been revised to ₹4,000 from ₹3,000. For first officers, the deadhead allowance has been raised to ₹2,000 from ₹1,500.
Deadhead allowance is given to pilots when they fly as a passenger to another destination to operate a flight from there. As per sources, meal allowance during transit has also been increased to ₹1,000 from ₹500 for captains.
Tail swap refers to pilots hopping over to another aircraft to operate another flight, rather than staying on the same aircraft for their next flight. Doing a tail swap requires a series of extra checks and preparation, something that the pilots do not have to go through if they remain on the same aircraft they had flown in on. Captains and co-pilots who opt for a tail swap will get ₹1,500 and ₹750 per tail swap, respectively.
The tail swap allowance amount has been referred to by many IndiGo pilots as a “small correction” that will hopefully be the first step that the company might be taking towards fatigue-inducing measures still in place at the company under the old Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms.
“For a senior captain earning ₹9.5 lakh, this will mean an extra ₹15,000-20,000, which is less than 1% hike. Still, a start has been made,” said a pilot to TOI. These hikes are apparently only about 25% of he allowances that were reduced for pilots after the second phase of the FDTL norms were implemented in November 2025.
