Pieter Elbers has resigned as chief executive officer of IndiGo, with immediate effect, the airline’s parent company InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. said on Tuesday.
Following his departure, the airline’s managing director Rahul Bhatia will oversee the company’s management on an interim basis. The resignation comes three months after the airline faced its worst operational disruption, which resulted in thousands of cancelled and delayed flights and drew regulatory scrutiny.
Flight crisis that hit IndiGo’s operations
In December 2025, IndiGo Airlines experienced a critical operational failure as it struggled to adapt to new rules aimed at reducing pilot fatigue.
The airline canceled over 2,500 flights and delayed about 1,900 flights from December 3rd to December 5th, affecting over 300,000 passengers, as revealed by the airline’s disclosure and reports.
The critical operational failure was addressed by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, which imposed a record fine of ₹22.20 crore on IndiGo Airlines while issuing show-cause notices to its senior management, including Elbers.
The critical operational failure has also harmed IndiGo’s reputation for timely operations, which was a vital part of its brand positioning in the Indian aviation industry.
Growth during Elbers’ tenure
Elbers took charge as IndiGo’s chief executive in September 2022. During his tenure, the airline recorded significant expansion. The company crossed $10 billion in revenue, expanded its fleet to more than 440 aircraft, and placed a record order for 500 aircraft from Airbus, one of the largest aircraft purchase deals in aviation history.
Despite these milestones, the operational crisis in December overshadowed the latter part of his tenure. InterGlobe Aviation has not yet announced a permanent successor for the CEO role.
Who is Pieter Elbers?
Pieter Elbers is a Dutch aviation executive who has been serving as the CEO of IndiGo, India’s largest domestic airline. He is currently based in Delhi NCR and works from the airline’s corporate headquarters in Gurgaon. Elbers, 55, is widely known in the aviation industry. Before joining IndiGo, he served as the CEO of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines from 2014 to 2022.
He was born in 1970 in South Holland in the Netherlands. Elbers studied at Fontys University of Applied Sciences in Venlo, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Logistics Management. He later completed an MBA from the Open University of the Netherlands. In 2006, he also attended an executive education programme at Columbia Business School, according to his LinkedIn profile.
