IndiGo CEO on India-Pakistan Crisis, UK Trade Deal, and New Partnerships
There's rarely a quiet moment for IndiGo's energetic chief executive, but Pieter Elbers has even more on his plate than usual.
The chief executive of India's largest airline has emphasized the need for operational perspective amid escalating regional tensions. Speaking on Thursday, Pieter Elbers, CEO of IndiGo, outlined the disruption to the carrier over recent weeks.
'All of the [Pakistani] airspace closed two weeks back for Indian operators, that forced us to cancel two destinations in Central Asia and the rest had some diversions, but it was actually quite minimal in terms of operational impact for us.'
Elbers highlighted IndiGo's focus on short and medium-haul routes as limiting its initial exposure. He contrasted this to Air India's long-haul portfolio – including routes to Western Europe and the United States – that faced greater challenges amid the geopolitical fallout.
However, the security situation has deteriorated in the last 48 hours. Early on Wednesday, India launched a military operation into Pakistani-controlled territory. It said the strikes were in response to a terrorist attack that killed 26 civilians in Kashmir in late April. Pakistan has launched its own military operations with mounting uncertainty about what may come next.
A 'Significantly Larger' Impact
Elbers said this most recent spike in violence had affected the airline more. 'Of course, in the last 48 hours, the impact has been significantly larger in terms of operations. We've canceled around 170 flights today [Thursday] in the northern part of India, with 11-12 airports where we operate that are closed,' he said at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit in Athens.
As Skift earlier reported, India has closed 27 airports in the north, west, and central parts of the country until at least Friday. IndiGo usually operates to more than 40% of these destinations.
The carrier canceled flights to and from Jammu, Leh, Chandigarh, Srinagar, Amritsar, Dharamshala, Bikaner and Jodhpur. In its most recent updates, the airline added Gwalior, Rajkot, and Kishangarh to the list.
Despite the disruption, Elbers said context was important when considering the scale of the wider IndiGo operation: 'Just to put it in perspective, we operate more than 2,200 daily flights – so that's 160 cancellations out of almost 2,300. These 160 flights will be partly redeployed to other parts of the country and to other regions.'
United and American Airlines were among the international carriers to cancel flights to Delhi on Wednesday. Others such as British Airways and Virgin Atlantic endured long diversionary routes adding to fuel costs and causing scheduling headaches.
India-UK Trade Deal Good for Business
Speaking exclusively to Skift on the sidelines of the Athens event, Elbers also offered his insight on another of the week's big stories.
The IndiGo chief said a major new trade deal between India and the UK was good news for IndiGo, particularly in such uncertain times.
'In a changing world with a lot of different dynamics going on, I think the developments taking place are giving India a different position, and a different setting, which obviously helps us to fuel the business and its growth,' he said.
On the subject of growth, Elbers additionally confirmed to Skift that July remains the planned launch date for its first long-haul European flights.
In March, the carrier announced that Amsterdam and Manchester will be served nonstop from Delhi. However, it cautioned at the time that the services are subject to final regulatory approvals and what IndiGo described as 'operational preparedness.' An upbeat Elbers said he sees no change to the previously advised timeline.
The new European flights will be operated by leased Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft provided by Norse Atlantic Airways.
IndiGo already has one 787 in operation from a commitment for four planes. Elbers said the others 'will be coming in the latter half of this year.'
The IndiGo CEO also hinted at possible expansion of the arrangement: 'India is in a hurry and so is IndiGo. We've ordered the [Airbus] A350s, but they're only going to be available by 2027. We didn't want to wait until 2027 and miss out on the opportunity, and with that, we've taken these decisions to move with the 787s, but let's see, maybe we will look if we can continue to further build on that.'
Elbers on New Partnerships
Speaking at the Skift India Forum in March, Elbers suggested that speculation about IndiGo joining the SkyTeam alliance was misguided.
Asked on Thursday about the prospect of new codeshare partners, Elbers didn't rule out new deals, but said the focus would be on the development of existing contracts.
'What we have now is really serving us well. We're open for further partnerships, but I think the deepening and the broadening of some of the existing ones is probably the next step,' he told Skift.
Watch Pieter Elbers at the Skift India Forum 2025:
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