IndiGo crisis: CEO admits operational failures in letter to staff; asserts restoring punctuality is ‘immediate goal’

IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers has written to employees acknowledging the severe disruptions that have hit the airline in recent days, conceding that IndiGo “could not live up to the promise” of providing a good travel experience to passengers.

The carrier has seen more than 300 flight cancellations on Thursday alone, with scores of services delayed as operational challenges mounted.




In the internal message, Elbers said the past few days had been “difficult for many of our IndiGo customers and colleagues”, noting that the airline serves close to 3.8 lakh customers daily but had failed to meet expectations.

“We could not live up to that promise these past days and we have publicly apologised for that,” he said.



Elbers attributed the crisis to a mix of “minor technology glitches, schedule changes, adverse weather conditions, heightened congestion in the aviation ecosystem, and the implementation of the newly released FDTL norms”, which “compounded negatively to create a cascading impact on our operations”.

He expressed gratitude to pilots, cabin crew, engineers, OCC, customer support, digital teams and airport staff who have been working “tirelessly to manage the situation, minimise the impact, and restore stability as quickly as possible”.

As per PTI, IndiGo’s on-time performance had plunged to 19.7 per cent on December 3, underlining the scale of the disruption.

Elbers told staff that given the size and complexity of IndiGo’s network, disruptions “grow large immediately” and require interventions at multiple levels. “Our immediate goal is to normalise our operations and bring punctuality back on track in the coming days, which is not an easy target,” he wrote.

The DGCA has summoned IndiGo’s senior management to explain the unprecedented nationwide disruptions and present a corrective plan.

The airline has already initiated “calibrated adjustments” to its schedules for the next 48 hours to stabilise operations, according to its official statement.

Elbers, in his letter, urged employees to come together as one team, recalling how IndiGo recently completed the upgrade of 200 A320 aircraft within 24 hours. “I am confident we all can deal with this challenge too… Together, as one team, we will overcome this challenge and emerge even stronger,” he said.

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