It is a little over six months since Petrus Johannes Theodorus Elbers – better known as Pieter Elbers – took over as CEO of IndiGo Airlines. The past six months have witnessed breathtaking developments across the aviation industry. Breaking out of the gloom of COVID-19, Indian air passenger traffic has touched over 85 per cent of the pre-pandemic level. Air India has been privatised and gone back to the Tata Group. New entrant Akasa Air is looking to grab a sizeable share of the aviation market.  

Mr Elbers, an aviation industry veteran, is well aware of huge opportunities and immense challenges before IndiGo. The Gurugram, Haryana-headquartered airline is an undisputed leader with more than 55 per cent share of the Indian aviation market. Yet the IndiGo chief is well aware that he cannot afford to be complacent. The 53-year-old airline executive has been drawing up plans for IndiGo since day one of assuming his new responsibility.

Over three decades ago, in 1992, Mr Elbers began his career with Dutch airline KLM as supervisor in the aircraft loading division at the Schiphol hub in The Netherlands. Since then, he has held various managerial positions at KLM in The Netherlands as well as abroad in Japan, Greece and Italy. He was also senior vice-president of network and alliances at the Dutch airline before joining the airline’s board of directors as chief operating officer in 2011. Three years later, Mr Elbers assumed charge as CEO of KLM.

A graduate in logistics management and postgraduate in business administration, Mr Elbers heads IndiGo at an interesting phase. He has succeeded Ronojoy Dutta, another aviation veteran who had to weather the turbulence caused by the viral pandemic and a bitter feud between IndiGo’s promoters, which has now ended.

On the face of it, the situation at IndiGo appears to be rosy with no challenges and lots of opportunities. The country’s largest airline by market share has more than 300 aircraft, which operate around 1,800 flights daily to 76 destinations in India.

However, probe further, and the new IndiGo chief has many steep hurdles to overcome. Mr Elbers’ experience so far has been limited to one airline and one country with more or less homogeneous culture. But India – with its expansive size, diverse cultures and many regulatory restrictions – presents a huge challenge to Mr Elbers. And then there are other issues such as soaring costs of jet fuel and other charges, severe congestion at major airports and cut-throat competition among airlines, along with Air India’s new-found vigour close on the heels of its mega orders of 470 aircraft.

The new IndiGo chief will certainly be banking on his long and rich experience in the industry to deal with many of the obstacles. In a series of recent interviews, he has also hinted at the airline embarking on the next level of growth. It is quite likely that a new plan is in the works to propel IndiGo to greater heights.