Who is Rahul Bhatia, what is his net worth as IndiGo crisis deepens — All you need to know

With air travel chaos continuing for the fourth consecutive day, IndiGo airline's crisis deepened on Friday. The airline cancelled over 400 flights. However, CEO Peter Elbers stated that operations are expected to normalise between December 10 and 15.

As IndiGo disruptions continued, several people on internet also search for the owners of the airline.

IndiGo was co-founded by Rahul Bhatia, who is also the Group Managing Director at airline's parent company, InterGlobe Aviation. Established in 1989, the company's core business is air transport management.

Who is Rahul Bhatia?

Rahul Bhatia, currently serving as the Group Managing Director at InterGlobe Aviation, is one of the two founding members of the company, which has emerged as India's largest carrier by market share.

According to the official InterGlobe website, Rahul Bhatia holds a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.

Over the years under Bhatia's leadership, IndiGo has diversified its portfolio, which now spans hospitality, logistics, technology, airline management, advanced pilot training and aircraft maintenance engineering.

Rahul Bhatia's net worth

Rahul Bhatia is also the promoter of IndiGo's parent company, InterGlobe Aviation, and directly owns a 0.01% stake or 40,000 shares in the airline giant, according to BSE promoter stakeholding data on 5 December 2025.

According to the data collected from Forbes, Rahul Bhatia's net worth stands at $8.1 billion as of Friday, 5 December 2025. Bhatia ranks 420th among the billionaires in the world as per the Forbes Rich List.

However, the data also showed that Rahul Bhatia's net worth has dropped 1.02% or $84 million as of Friday, amid the ongoing IndiGo cancellation crisis in India.

Rahul Bhatia co-founded the airline with Rakesh Gangwal, but after a major public fallout in 2019, Gangwal stepped down from the board of directors of the company in 2022 and has been selling his stake in the airline ever since.

The BSE data also showed that Rakesh Gangwal currently owns a 4.53% stake or 1,75,30,493 shares in InterGlobe Aviation.

IndiGo crisis

Over 500 IndiGo flights have been either delayed or cancelled as India's largest airline operator navigates its fourth day of the crisis over the updated crew rostering Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms.

The company also said that the flight cancellations would continue for the next 2-3 days as part of schedule stabilisation efforts, as the airline aims to restore operations to a stable level by 10 February 2026.

IndiGo informed the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) that, along with the updated FDTL norms, minor technology glitches, schedule changes due to the winter season, and the higher congestion in the aviation systems were also the reasons behind the operational disruption.

The airline giant plans to strengthen the crew planning and rostering in compliance with the updated government FDTL norms. IndiGo also plans to improve its coordination with the Air Traffic Control (ATC) in order to manage its capacity issues and its overall turnaround time.