NEW DELHI — IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers on Thursday acknowledged that the airline is facing severe operational turbulence, saying the immediate priority is to stabilise services and restore punctuality — a goal he admitted “is not an easy target.”
In an internal message to employees, Elbers said India’s largest carrier has fallen short of providing a satisfactory travel experience in recent days, as widespread disruptions have triggered growing frustration among passengers.
The airline has been hit by a wave of delays and cancellations, with more than 300 flights cancelled on Thursday alone and many more running late through 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.”
Elbers said the crisis was the result of several operational problems converging at once, including minor technical issues, schedule adjustments, adverse weather, rising congestion across the aviation ecosystem, and the rollout of new Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) rules.
“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.
He added that the airline’s immediate focus is on returning operations to normal and improving on-time performance in the coming days. “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 said.
Elbers assured staff that IndiGo is deploying resources across teams to stabilise schedules and prevent additional cascading delays, even as work continues to address the root causes of the disruptions. (Source: IANS)
