IndiGo ‘could not live up to promise': Airline CEO Elbers in email to employees amid flight disruptions

Amid hundreds of flight cancellations and ensuing chaos, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers on Friday shot a letter to employees, acknowledging that the airline had failed to live up to its promise to serve customers well and provide a good experience.

“These past few days have been difficult for many of our IndiGo customers and colleagues. 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 apologized for that,” Elbers said in an internal communication accessed by Hindustan Times.

The IndiGo CEO went on to highlight what issues had led to their failure, saying, “An accumulation of several operational challenges - including minor technology glitches, schedule changes, adverse weather conditions, heightened congestion in the aviation ecosystem, and the implementation of the newly released FDTL norms - compounded negatively to create a cascading impact on our operations.”

Elbers' note to employees comes amid chaos across India's airports, with over 300 IndiGo flights being cancelled since Tuesday, leaving thousands of flyers stranded.

The IndiGo CEO also issued a lengthy note of thanks to airline employees who are working “tirelessly” to restore services to normalcy, expressing his gratitude to “Pilots, Cabin Crew, OCC, Engineers, Customer Support, Digital, frontline staff at airport and their leadership teams”.

He also thanked airports, ATC and regulatory bodies for “doing their best to help in this complex moment”.

Normalising operations ‘not an easy target’

Saying that the airline had “faced tough moments before”, Elbers called on everyone to turn “challenges into triumphs”.

“Our immediate goal is to normalize our operations and bring punctuality back on track in the coming days, which is not an easy target,” Elbers said, explaining that the size, scale and complexity of IndiGo's network made it a challenging endeavour.

Elbers also recalled how efficiently IndiGo had handled updating software to fix the Airbus Air 320 glitch, and asked employees to rally to help the airline navigate this difficult time.

“Just a few days ago, we performed remarkably well as a united team to achieve an unimaginable feat of upgrading 200 aircraft (A320s) in less than 24 hours. I am confident we all can deal with this challenge too. Together, as one team, we will overcome this challenge and emerge even stronger,” Elbers said.

IndiGo flight chaos: The story so far

A lot has unfolded since the flight chaos began, so we'll sum it up for you

• At least 300 IndiGo flights had been cancelled up until Thursday evening.
• Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad are among airports to be majorly affected by the disruptions. As per PTI, at least 95 flights were cancelled at the Delhi airport, 85 at the Mumbai airport, 70 at the Hyderabad airport and 50 at the Bangalore airport
• IndiGo on Wednesday issued a public apology and acknowledged large scale disruption to their network
• The budget carrier said that schedule changes, tech glitches, adverse weather conditions, heightened congestion in the aviation system ecosystem, and the implementation of Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms led to the delays and cancellations
• Customers who have flights booked with IndiGo are advised to check flight status before departing for airports at: https://www.goindigo.in/check-flight-status.html