IndiGo Crisis: CEO Pieter Elbers Issues First Statement, Shares When Normality Will Return – Video

New Delhi: IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers issued his first statement on Friday, as the airline continued to face major disruptions to flight services over the past three days. In his statement, he acknowledged the operational turmoil and said that it could take another ten days to restore normalcy. The CEO also issued an apology.

"Full operational recovery is expected to take five to ten days, with gradual normalisation of services anticipated between December 10 and 15. Passengers are advised to monitor flight updates closely," Elbers said.

Interestingly, just a few hours before the CEO’s statement, the government had assured that normality would be achieved by Saturday, with full restoration of services by Monday.

Elbers confirmed that more than 1,000 flights were cancelled on 5 December, making it the worst day for operational disruptions. More than half of IndiGo’s daily flights are grounded.

“I want to share with you that we have experienced severe operational disruptions for the past few days. Since then, the crisis continues 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 said.

For customer communication addressing their needs, messages have been sent out. On social media, more detailed information regarding refunds, cancellations and other customer support measures has been shared. The company has also increased its customer support staff capacity, the CEO shared.

Elbers added that, with the company working on a war-footing, he hoped there would be fewer than 1,000 cancellations on Saturday.

He also thanked DGCA’s support in granting specific FDTL implementation relief. He said that significant work is still underway, but said the airline, in coordination with the Civil Aviation Ministry and DGCA and hopes steady improvement in the days ahead.