IndiGo said on Tuesday that Chief Executive Pieter Elbers had resigned with immediate effect for personal reasons, months after a mass flight cancellation left tens of thousands of passengers stranded and came under regulatory scrutiny.
The airline said its CEO Rahul Bhatia will run the company in the interim until a replacement is hired. Bhatia’s InterGlobe Enterprises is the largest shareholder of IndiGo operator InterGlobe Aviation with a 35.69% stake as of December.
India’s largest airline canceled about 4,500 flights in the first weeks of December, raising concerns about limited competition in the world’s fastest-growing aviation market.
The airline has apologized to customers after failing to make schedule changes in time to comply with stricter rules on pilot fatigue imposed by the government.
Elbers shared the stage with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Global Airline Summit in New Delhi last year and basked in IndiGo’s role as the host airline for the annual meeting.
