KLM CEO Pieter Elbers Will Become IndiGo CEO

India's largest airline has a new CEO.

Pieter Elbers will become IndiGo CEO

The parent company of IndiGo, InterGlobe Aviation, will have a new CEO in October of 2022. IndiGo is India's largest airline, and it is a low cost carrier. IndiGo has a fleet of over 300 aircraft, with over 500 additional planes on order.

Elbers will be leaving the airline as of this summer. Elbers was respected by the employees. Elbers was an exception because he was popular with employees.

Why is Elbers leaving? He wasn't fully onboard with the overall vision of Air France-KLM, and there was some tension with the parent company. Some on the other side of the argument think that Air France is holding them back because they are part of the same airline group.

I'm curious to see what direction IndiGo takes under Elbers' leadership, and I'm sure he will do an amazing job. IndiGo is probably the best run major Indian airline to begin with, so there is less work to be done than at Air India.

Indian aviation is getting interesting

India has a huge amount of potential in the aviation market. There has been a more interesting time for this market in modern aviation.

• Air India was recently privatized, after being government-owned and losing money for years; the airline was purchased by Tata Group, which also holds majority stakes in both Vistara and AirAsia India, and Tata Group is also the original owner of Air India
• Air India has appointed Campbell Wilson as the new CEO, who comes from a career at Singapore Airlines, including his most recent job as CEO of low cost carrier Scoot
• Now we have Pieter Elbers taking over at IndiGo, which should lead to some interesting changes as well

I can't wait to see how the market develops. I think Wilson has a harder job ahead of him than Elbers does.

Bottom line

As of this fall, Elbers will take charge of IndiGo. Elbers is leaving the airline as of this summer. Between Air India being privatized and appointing a new CEO, and Elbers moving to IndiGo, it is going to be a fun period for Indian aviation.

What do you think about Elbers being appointed as IndiGo CEO?