‘We are sorry…’: IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers apologises amid cancellations, says airline is ‘back on feet’ | Watch video

Pieter Elbers, Chief Executive Officer of IndiGo, India's largest airline, on Tuesday, 9 December, issued a public apology to all passengers amid mass flight cancellations that disrupted air travel across the country.

In a formal video message posted on social media, the CEO said IndiGo is now ‘back on its feet’ and its operations are ‘stable.’ The airline chief said the company had let down its passengers during a major operational disruption and apologised for the inconvenience.

“I'm Pieter Elbers, the CEO of IndiGo. Following our earlier communications today, I'm here to share that your airline, IndiGo, is back on its feet and our operations are stable. We've let you down when a major operational disruption happens, and we're sorry for that,” Pieter Elbers said in his message shared on X.

The CEO also reiterated that the company's staff are working hard to cater to customers and acknowledged that they cannot undo the flight cancellations, but will be able to support their customers.

“While we cannot undo the cancellations, I want to reassure that ever since, our entire IndiGo team has been working very hard, first and foremost for you, our valued customers,” he said.

What has IndiGo done so far?

The CEO also gave an overview of what IndiGo has done since the operational crisis emerged at the beginning of December 2025. Pieter Elbers said the airline's priority was to get all the stranded and delayed passengers to their destinations, after which it started processing 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 that we are fully committed to getting this done,” he said.

The executive also said that most of the baggage stuck at the airports has already been ‘delivered back’ to the passengers and the teams are working on the ones remaining.

IndiGo Crisis Update

The CEO also disclosed that as of Tuesday, 9 December, the airline's operations are stabilised, which means flights scheduled on the website will operate with an adjusted network.

The CEO also recommended that the airline's passengers should keep checking the website for any further updates.

“I can confirm now that today, as of 9 December, 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,” the IndiGo CEO said in his statement.

Pieter Elbers also stated that the company is now willing to fully cooperate with the Indian government, having dealt with the immediate crisis, amid the ongoing regulatory investigation into the matter.

“We continue to work in full cooperation with the government, 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,” he said.

Mint reported earlier that, despite the DGCA's threat of strict action, on Tuesday, more than 350 flights to and from the Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru airports were reportedly cancelled.