Pieter Elbers has resigned as CEO of IndiGo with immediate effect. The airline announced that Rahul Bhatia, managing director, will temporarily take over leadership. Elbers, who joined in September 2022, cited “personal reasons” and asked to skip his notice period.
His departure comes three months after IndiGo faced its worst operational crisis in December 2025. Over 300,000 passengers were stranded due to widespread flight cancellations. The aviation regulator DGCA fined the airline ?22.2 crore and launched an investigation.
A government-appointed inquiry found several problems: IndiGo over-optimised its flight schedules; it didn’t follow updated crew duty rules properly; software systems were weak, and management oversight was lacking.
Crew rosters were stretched too thin, leaving no room to recover from delays. The airline relied heavily on complex scheduling tactics like tail swaps and extended duty hours, which backfired.
Elbers had publicly admitted the airline failed its customers during the crisis but insisted that three bad days shouldn’t define IndiGo’s 20-year legacy. He said the company is learning from the experience and aims to become one of the world’s largest airlines.
The financial impact of the disruptions was estimated at ?2,000 crore. Since then, IndiGo has been reviewing its internal systems to improve resilience and prevent future breakdowns.
Rahul Bhatia will now oversee operations while the company searches for a new CEO.
