IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers Resigns Months After December Aviation Crisis; Rahul Bhatia To Take Interim Charge

IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers resigned from his post on Tuesday. He has been under fire since the December crisis in the country's largest airline, operated by Interglobe Aviation Ltd, which led chaotic situation at the top Indian airports and disruption in the airline services. IndiGo MD Rahul Bhatia would take charge until Elbers's replacement is hired.

DGCA Upset With IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers

Earlier in January, the aviation regulatory body, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) , cautioned Elbers for inadequate overall oversight of flight operations and crisis management. A DGCA panel probed the operational disruptions at IndiGo, highlighting several lapses in the management and operations. Besides, the government has already slashed IndiGo's winter schedule by 10 per cent following large-scale flight cancellations earlier in January. The DGCA imposed a total penalty of Rs 22.20 crore on IndiGo Airlines on January 17.

ALSO READ: Middle East Travel Chaos: IndiGo, SpiceJet Adds More Flights; Air India, Etihad Resume Limited Operations Amid Conflict

What Did IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers Say On December Crisis

Pieter Elbers said the airline's focus now was on three things -- resilience, root-cause analysis, and rebuilding, after the domestic carrier inconvenienced and caused hardship to lakhs of passengers across airports by cancelling thousands of flights earlier this month.

In a video message to employees, Elbers said the focus of IndiGo in now on rebuilding the airline post-stabilisation of operations, and that the airline's Board has appointed an external aviation expert to conduct a comprehensive root-cause analysis.

ALSO READ: IndiGo's First Flight To Manchester Returns Midair Amid West Asian Crisis, Makes Emergency Landing In Delhi

"On December 9, I shared the stabilization of IndiGo's operation. After that, we restored our network to 2,200 flights today (Thursday). Now we focus on three things: resilience, root cause analysis and rebuilding (the airline)," Elbers said.

IndiGo December Crisis

IndiGo cancelled thousands of flights between December 1 and December 9 due to a lack of proper planning and crew shortages in implementing the new regulations on pilots' duty periods and rest, which were put in place from November 1.

(With PTI inputs)