IndiGo flights chaos: Will CEO Pieter Elbers be sacked? What we know so far

IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers may become a casualty of a major flight disruption that has led to more than 1,300 flights cancelled in airports across the country, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.

Elbers's chaotic handling of the new flight duty rules is the reason behind his possible exit, an NDTV report said on Saturday, citing sources in the know.

The sources added that this is part of a larger crackdown on the embattled airline, with the aviation ministry summoning IndiGo officials this evening for the second time since the issue began, earlier this week.

Heavy fines may also be imposed on IndiGo—which will affect the airline's substantial domestic market share—in addition to a possible reduction in the number of flights it is allowed to operate.

"It will take some time to return to a fully normal situation, which we do anticipate between 10-15 December," Elbers had said in a video message on X, apologising for the widespread flight cancellations after a long silence.

Netizens soon criticised his message online for lacking context, such as IndiGo's failure to comply with recent policy changes from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) aimed at making air travel safer.

According to aviation expert Subhash Goyal, IndiGo had also "expanded its international route network and increased domestic flights without increasing crew and pilots", instead of complying with the new DGCA policy, as per an ANI interview.

Goyal also pointed out that this deviation returned to haunt them at a crucial time—when the government wanted to enforce a deadline for implementing the new policy changes. 

The chaos came after IndiGo's response to the deadline: it grounded most of its flights, instead of reducing some of them, Goyal added.

Though the DGCA relaxed the implementation of its Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) rules for IndiGo, this decision was met with strong opposition from the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) India, which criticised the selective nature of the decision.

The pilots' body said that the DGCA decision to allow IndiGo to substitute pilots' leaves with a weekly rest period went against its earlier agreement with the aviation watchdog, as per which no such lenience would beshown to any operator.

Though the Delhi airport recently indicated that flight disruptions were gradually reducing, at least 400 flights were cancelled across India on Saturday.

The aviation ministry has sought to curb "unusually high" airfares using fare caps that will remain in force until the situation fully stabilises, it said in an official statement.

It also directed IndiGo to complete refund processes for all cancelled/delayed flights by 8:00 PM this Sunday.