IndiGo CEO makes sudden departure after December turbulence, international expansion
New Delhi (PTI): On a warm afternoon on January 28, a confident Petrus Johannes Theodorus Elbers, better known as Pieter Elbers, explained the journey of IndiGo with his innate enthusiasm.
This was also his first in-person media interaction after flight disruptions in December last year.
Three days of disruptions cannot define the 20 years of IndiGo, a slightly agitated Elbers told media persons in response to repeated queries related to the flight cancellations, including about the duration of the cancellations, in December.
Little over 40 days after that interaction, Elbers, a Dutch national who enjoyed and shared pictures of his participation in local Indian festivals and wearing local attire, abruptly resigned from the airline as the Chief Executive Officer on Tuesday.
Before joining IndiGo on September 6, 2022, Elbers was the President & Chief Executive Officer of KLM for eight years. He was with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines for 30 years in various roles.
Under his stewardship, IndiGo significantly expanded its international operations, started operations with leased wide-body Boeing 787-9 aircraft, placed orders for 60 wide-body A350-900 planes and remained profitable.
Also, IndiGo, which currently has a domestic market share of 63.6 per cent, hosted the annual general meeting of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in the national capital in June last year. The meeting happened in India for the first time after 42 years.
While Elbers' stint as CEO was progressing well, the unprecedented operational disruptions at IndiGo, always proud of its On Time Performance (OTP), in December last year clouded the horizon.
More than 2,500 flight cancellations in just three days from December 3-5 left passengers in the lurch, rattled aviation authorities and pushed Elbers to repeatedly apologise for disruptions, which were mainly caused by a lack of planning in implementing the revised flight duty norms for pilots.
"We have let down our customers for three days," and the airline will use it to come back better, Elbers said on January 28 at the media interaction on the sidelines of the aviation summit Wings India 2026 in Hyderabad.
In his short resignation letter on Tuesday, Elbers cited personal reasons for his departure and mentioned that if the company so desires, obviously, I will be available for any handover or transition otherwise.
However, he has been relieved with immediate effect, and IndiGo Co-Founder and Managing Director Rahul Bhatia will manage the company's affairs on an interim basis.
Back in May 2025, when asked about the way forward for IndiGo, Elbers told PTI Videos, "picture abhi baaki hai".
With ambitious growth plans on the anvil, the airline will soon have a second CEO in less than four years to pilot the journey.
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'Last rites' of INDIA bloc: BJP on Cong-DMK fallout in Tamil Nadu
New Delhi (PTI): The BJP on Wednesday took a swipe at the Congress for extending support to Vijay's TVK in forming the government in Tamil Nadu and breaking away from its long term ally DMK, saying the party has a history of "betraying" its allies.
The saffron party also attacked the opposition INDIA bloc, claiming the alliance is "falling apart like a pack of cards" and lacks any common ideology or vision.
The Tamil Nadu Congress has decided to support TVK leader Vijay in forming a secular government in the state, sources said.
The decision to support the TVK was taken at an urgent meeting of the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) of Tamil Nadu Congress late on Tuesday night.
Reacting to the development, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla claimed the INDIA alliance had effectively come to an end after the declaration of assembly election results on May 4.
"There is nobody whom the Congress has not deceived. Imagine what they will do to the Samajwadi Party if they have done this to the DMK," he wrote in a post on X.
Calling it the "last rites" of the INDIA bloc, Poonawalla, in a video post, said, "It has become a Bharat free of the DMK, TMC and the Left, and now Congress has dumped the DMK for the TVK."
The BJP spokesperson alleged that the opposition bloc was formed solely out of political compulsions and personal ambitions.
"The INDI alliance never had any mission or vision. It was only about ambition for position, corruption, commission and obsession against Modi ji that they came together. But now it is all falling apart like a pack of cards," he said.
Questioning the unity of the opposition parties, Poonawalla said the alliance was absent in several states during the election.
"Where was the INDI alliance in Bengal, in Kerala, in Gujarat, in Punjab, in Delhi, in Haryana, in Karnataka? There is no INDI alliance," he said.
The DMK on Wednesday described the Congress move to extend support to TVK as a "backstab" by its long-time national ally.
Speaking to PTI videos, DMK spokesperson Saravanan Anadurai said, "The Congress party has decided to ally with the TVK, pledging their support to the party. I think they have backstabbed... They have backstabbed the people of Tamil Nadu. They've backstabbed the mandate given by the people of Tamil Nadu."
He said that the decision came even before the electoral process had fully concluded.
"Even before the ink on the returning officer's signature on the victory certificate dried up, they've chosen to go ahead with an alliance," he said.
Vijay's TVK won 108 seats in the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly, falling short of the halfway mark. He needs the support of 10 MLAs to form a government with a simple majority. The results were declared only on Monday.
The Congress has won five seats, while the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) has bagged four seats. The CPI and CPI-M have two seats each. The outgoing ruling party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), has won 59 seats while the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has won 47 seats.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won only one seat, and so have the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) and the Amma Makkal Munnettra Kazagam (AMMK), while the VCK has won two seats.
The Congress had fought the assembly polls in a pre-poll alliance with the DMK, while the BJP had a tie-up with the AIADMK.
