Three months after IndiGo meltdown, CEO Pieter Elbers quits citing personal reasons; promoter Rahul Bhatia takes interim charge

Bhatia, in a communication to employees on Tuesday, wrote that the December crisis should never have happened. “What happened last December should never have taken place…Our customers didn’t deserve it and nor did all of you, especially the frontline employees who bore most of the brunt for no fault of theirs…I wish to place on record my indebtedness to all my colleagues who carried the Company’s cross with grace and dignity, and ploughed through sleepless nights to restore IndiGo’s operational integrity. You are indeed the living spirit of IndiGo,” Bhatia is learnt to have written in his email, which he signed off as “Rahul (alias ‘Main Hoon Naa’).”

Bhatia also told employees that he is fully committed to strengthening the airline’s culture and reinforcing operational excellence. “Let us stay focused and accountable, remain fiercely united and committed to the cause, and continue to do what we do best—offer affordable fares, and a courteous and hassle-free travel experience to our customers,” Bhatia added, it is learnt.

Elbers, who has 30 years of aviation business under his belt, had been IndiGo CEO since September 2022, just as the airline came out of the pandemic. Prior to joining IndiGo, he was the President & CEO of Dutch carrier KLM for eight years. His tenure at IndiGo saw the airline expand its network far and wide beyond India, a strategy Elbers liked to call “internationalisation”.

Elbers was also instrumental in the IndiGo’s evolution from a typical low-cost carrier into a “fit-for-purpose” airline, which now offers a business class product on its top routes, and has even entered the wide-body long-haul segment with flights to various European cities. IndiGo is now counted among the world’s top airlines by passenger volumes, and has in recent years tightened its stranglehold over India’s domestic aviation market with a dense and high-frequency network. The period has also seen the airline placing world record-breaking aircraft orders, including an order for wide-body jets for long and ultra-long-haul operations.

The large-scale disruption, which erupted on December 3, peaked on December 5 with over 1,600 of the airline’s 2,300-plus daily flights getting cancelled in a single day. With the DGCA granting specific exemptions, the airline was able to swiftly stabilise operations over the course of the next few days. The regulator had also ordered IndiGo to curtail its approved domestic flight schedule by 10% for the ongoing Winter Schedule. In January, the DGCA imposed financial penalties totalling Rs 22.20 crore on the airline for the operational meltdown, apart from issuing warnings to its top management personnel, including Elbers. The fine is the highest-ever regulatory penalty imposed by the DGCA on an airline, and is slightly higher than IndiGo’s average daily net profit for financial year 2024-25.