‘IndioGo back on its feet, our operations stable’: CEO Pieter Elbers apologises for chaos across airports

NEW DELHI: IndiGo airlines has stablished its operations nearly a week after Indian airports were engulfed in chaos due to hundreds of flight cancellations and delays across the country, with Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the airline, Pieter Elbers, apologising to the passengers in a new statement released on Tuesday.

Saying that IndiGo is “back on its feet,” CEO Elbers has apologised to the thousands of affected passengers for “letting them down” due to “major operational disruptions” of the airline.

“Following our earlier communication, I am here to share that our airline, IndiGo, is back on its feet, and our operations are stable. We’ve let you down when a major operational disruption happened, and we’re sorry for that. That beauty of air travel is that it brings together people, emotions, ambitions and aspirations, and we know that that you are travelling for various reasons,” CEO Pieter Elbers said in a statement.

Reiterating the airline’s commitment to bring relief to the thousands of stranded customers, the CEO said, “Thousands of you could not travel, and we are profusely apologetic of that. While we cannot undo the cancellations, I want to reassure that our entire IndiGo team has been working very hard. First foremost for you, our valued customers. Initially, our first priority was to get all stranded and delayed customers safely to their destinations or back home.”

IndiGo has already issued full refunds to the affected passengers, and while the cancellations of flights and tickets cannot be undone, he said that the airline is working “very hard” to bring relief to passengers, including returning their baggage.

“Then we started our refunds, no questions asked. Lakhs of customers have already received their full refunds, and we continue to do so on a daily basis. Rest assured, we are fully committed in getting this done. Most of the bags have already been delivered back to your homes, and our teams are working very hard on delivering the remain ones very soon,” he said.

As per the CEO, IndiGo has steadily increased its flights since the chaos started, from 700 flights operated on December 5, to more than 1800 flights today, and normal operations are resuming across IndiGo’s 138 destinations.

“We also continue to address all customer needs. In parallel to address your needs as a customer, the restoration of IndiGo’s network and flights is being done on a war footing. On December 5, we could only fly 700 flights, thereafter, gradually yet steadily improving to 1500 on 6th, 1650 on 7th, 1800 yesterday, and today, more than 1800. As of yesterday, we are back to flying to all 138 destinations across our network, and our on-time performance has also been normalised,” CEO Elbers said.

“Earlier, we had indicated to normalise between the 10th and 15th of December. I can confirm now that today, as of December 9, our operations are fully stabilised, which means flights reflecting on our website are scheduled to operate with an adjusted network. So please continue to check our website for updates,” he added.

IndiGo is continuing to work in “full cooperation with the government,” and is looking internally to analyse the reasons for the chaos.

“And now that the immediate crisis is dealt with, we started to focus internally on what has led to this, lessons learned to be drawn and how to emerge stronger from this. While there’s still customer angst, I would also like to share that we’re getting heartwarming messages from our customers, and the people are back to booking on our flights, which has given us a big encouragement,” he said.

Earlier today, over 400 flights were cancelled across multiple airports, according to airport authorities.

Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) Airport reported the highest impact, confirming 152 IndiGo flights cancelled, including 76 arrivals and 76 departures, authorities said.

Cancellations rippled across southern airports as well. In Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport, 58 arrivals and 63 departures were cancelled, with the airport authority announcing that the next update will be issued after 6 pm.

Earlier today, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) directed IndiGo to reduce its flight operations by 5% across sectors, citing the airline’s failure to operate its winter schedule efficiently and a backlog of cancellations. The airline has been asked to submit a revised schedule by 5 PM on December 10, 2025.

In an official notice issued to IndiGo, the DGCA said that the airline had been approved 15,014 departures per week, amounting to 64,346 flights for November 2025 under the Winter Schedule. However, operational data shows that IndiGo managed to operate only 59,438 flights, with 951 cancellations recorded during the month. (ANI)