Amid a major operational crisis, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers on Monday apologised to passengers and announced that the airline has fully stabilised its operations following last week’s disruption, which caused over 4,500 flight cancellations and left thousands of travellers stranded across India.
Amid an ongoing crisis, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers on Monday apologised to customers and announced that the airline has fully stabilised operations after last week’s disruption, which led to more than 4,500 flight cancellations and left thousands of passengers stranded nationwide.
‘IndiGo is back on its feet’
In a video message, Elbers said IndiGo is “back on its feet”, with its full network restored across all 138 destinations. “I can confirm now that today, as of December 9th, our operations are fully stabilised, which means flights reflected on our website are scheduled to operate with the adjusted network,” he said.
He added that the airline has processed refunds for lakhs of customers and continues to deliver pending baggage.
IndiGo Operations Normalised | A Message From Pieter Elbers, CEO, IndiGo pic.twitter.com/VVB2yTsIBy
— IndiGo (@IndiGo6E) December 9, 2025
Elbers noted that the airline had “let customers down” during the disruption. “Today, I’m here to share that your airline, IndiGo, is back on its feet, and our operations are stable. We’re sorry for that,” he said.
Focus on stranded passengers, refunds and baggage
Expressing regret for disrupted travel plans, Elbers said air travel carries “people, emotions, ambitions, and aspirations”, and that IndiGo’s first priority was ensuring stranded passengers reached their destinations safely. “While we cannot undo the cancellations, I want to reassure you that ever since, our entire IndiGo team has been working very hard… our priority was to get all stranded and delayed customers safely to their destinations or back home.”
He said refunds were issued immediately and without conditions. “Lakhs of customers have already received their full refunds, and we continue to do so daily. Rest assured that we are fully committed to getting this done.”
Most baggage stuck at airports has now been delivered, with remaining deliveries underway. “As of yesterday, we are back to flying to all our 138 destinations in our network, and our on-time performance has also been normalised,” he added.
IndiGo under government scrutiny
Elbers said the airline continues to work “in full cooperation” with authorities. “Now that the immediate crisis is dealt with, we have started to focus internally on what has led to this. Lessons are to be learned and how to emerge stronger from this.”
Government moves to curb IndiGo routes
The union government has decided to cut IndiGo’s winter schedule and redistribute some of its slots to other carriers.
“We have already talked to DGCA… and we’ve decided to curtail IndiGo’s operations. It has about 2,200 routes in its flight schedule, which will definitely be brought down. These routes will be awarded to other operators, and when IndiGo shows that it’s able to cover those routes, we’ll give them back to IndiGo,” Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu told Doordarshan.
Meanwhile, the DGCA has reportedly directed IndiGo to reduce operations by 5 percent. With the airline operating around 2,300 flights daily, this amounts to roughly 115 fewer flights.
Market reaction
IndiGo shares were up 1.31 percent at Rs 4,988 on the NSE on Monday. However, the stock has fallen more than 13 per cent over the past five trading sessions amid the ongoing crisis.
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