NEW DELHI, Dec 4 — IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers on Thursday acknowledged that the airline is facing significant operational turbulence, saying the immediate priority is to stabilize schedules and rebuild punctuality, even though doing so “is not an easy target.”
In an internal message to employees, Elbers admitted that IndiGo — India’s largest airline by market share — has not delivered an acceptable travel experience in recent days as widespread disruptions have left passengers frustrated across the country.
The carrier has been battling an unusual wave of delays and cancellations, with more than 300 flights scrapped on Thursday alone and many more running behind schedule throughout the day.
“These past few days have been difficult for many of IndiGo’s customers and colleagues,” Elbers told staff. “We serve close to 380,000 customers a day and want each of them to have a good experience. We could not live up to that promise these past days, and we have publicly apologised for that.”
According to Elbers, the recent breakdown was triggered by several issues converging at once — minor technical problems, schedule realignments, adverse weather conditions, heavy congestion across the aviation network, and the introduction of new Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms for crew.
“Given the size, scale and complexity of our network, these disruptions grow large immediately and require interventions on multiple levels and dimensions. For that, a lot of work is being conducted right now,” he said.
Elbers said the airline’s top focus is to restore operational normalcy and improve on-time performance in the coming days, though he noted that achieving this will take considerable effort. He added that IndiGo is mobilizing teams and resources across departments to steady schedules and avoid further cascading disruptions while also addressing the structural issues behind the recent turmoil. (Source: IANS)
