In New Delhi on December 5th, IndiGo’s chief executive Pieter Elbers said that due to the airline’s size and the complexity of its operations, it will take a period of time before the service can resume fully normal. He noted, “which we do anticipate between the 10 to 15th of December.”
The CEO delivered the message in a video aimed at passengers while the airline faced an unprecedented wave of cancellations – more than a thousand flights in just the last three days. He apologized and explained that the disruptions stem from multiple factors, and that the firm is rolling out new measures to mitigate the situation.
“We have experienced severe operational disruptions for the past few days. Since then, the crisis continued to aggravate, with today, December 5th, being the most severely impacted day with the number of cancellations well over a thousand or more than half of our number of daily flights,” Elbers stated.
“I, on behalf of all of us at Indigo, would like to extend our sincerest apologies for the major inconvenience this has caused to many of our customers on account of delays or cancellations,” he added.
Acknowledging that the domestic market holds the majority share, Elbers highlighted that amid the chaos and widespread miscommunication, the airline has charted a new set of initiatives. These include more detailed communication through major channels and providing travel help to stranded passengers across airports.
“The situation is a result of various causes, yet for you as a customer, it’s important how we as Indigo address this. We have defined three lines of action,” Elbers emphasised.
The first line concentrates on keeping customers informed. The airline has already posted updates on social media and plans to offer more thorough details about refunds, cancellations and other support services. He also mentioned an upgrade to the call‑centre’s capacity.
“Secondly, due to yesterday’s situation, we had customers stranded mostly at the nation’s largest airport. Our focus was for all of them to be able to travel today itself, which will be achieved. For this, we also ask customers whose flights are cancelled not to come to airports as notifications are sent,” he noted.
The third step involves coordinating crew and aircraft movements for the start of services tomorrow. Earlier attempts over the last few days proved insufficient, and the CEO admitted this.
“So we’ve decided today for a reboot of all our systems and schedules, resulting in the highest number of cancellations so far, but imperative for progressive improvements starting from tomorrow,” he highlighted.
“With these actions, we expect tomorrow to have cancellations below 1,000,” Elbers said.
He expressed gratitude to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for granting temporary relief on flight‑duty‑time‑limitations during this critical period.
“Still, there’s lots of work in progress, but going forward from here, in alignment with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the DGCA, we do expect to further improve every day,” the CEO noted.
Meanwhile, officials announced a high‑level inquiry into the massive IndiGo disruption. The probe will investigate what went wrong, assign accountability where warranted, and recommend safeguards to prevent similar breakdowns in the future, ensuring passengers no longer face such hardships.
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