IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers has been under sharp scrutiny after the airline cancelled a large number of flights, stranding passengers across the country. The DGCA has now issued him a show-cause notice, saying the airline must explain the disruptions that stretched on for days.
The regulator has asked Elbers to respond within 24 hours, as the cancellations and delays have triggered anger and questions from travellers who were left without clarity or support.
So who is Pieter Elbers?
He is a Dutch national who heads IndiGo, India’s biggest domestic airline. Based in the Delhi NCR region, he operates from the company’s corporate office in Gurgaon. Elbers, 55, has spent most of his career in aviation. Before joining IndiGo, he led KLM Royal Dutch Airlines from 2014 to 2022.
Elbers was born in 1970 in South Holland. He studied logistics management at Fontys University of Applied Sciences in Venlo and later earned an MBA from the Open University of the Netherlands. In 2006, he completed an executive programme at Columbia Business School.
He began his aviation career in 1992 with KLM, starting out as a supervisor overseeing aircraft loading at Schiphol. Over the next several years, he took on various management roles, including postings in Japan, Greece and Italy. He returned to the Netherlands in 2005 to become Senior Vice President for network and alliances, joined KLM’s board of managing directors in 2011 as COO, and eventually became its President and CEO.
IndiGo named him CEO in June 2022, and he officially stepped into the role that September after Ronojoy Dutta retired.
Elbers has spoken openly about adapting to life in India. After spending two years in the country, he said India feels like home and that both IndiGo and the country have become an important part of his life.
