Budget Indian carrier IndiGo has announced the appointment of Pieter Elbers as the new CEO. He will be replacing Ronojoy Dutta, who decided to retire on September 30. 

Prior to this, Elbers was associated with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines as the CEO and was also a member of the executive committee of the Air France KLM Group. While Bruce Ashby was the first CEO of IndiGo from 2005 to 2008, Elbers is going to be the fourth person to be heading the chair since the launch of the company. 

According to a report carried out by News18, IndiGo stated in a regulatory filing, “Petrus Johannes Theodorus Elbers (Pieter Elbers) has joined as Chief Executive Officer of the company with effect from today, September 6.” 

The 71-year-old Dutta came to the helm of the airline in January 2019, and guided IndiGo through the turbulent COVID-19 period. Under his leadership, the carrier witnessed a growth and operated 133,582 departures in Q1-FY23, about 7.04% more than its last best of 124,798 departures in Q3-FY20. Despite the initial loss in the first quarter of this fiscal year, hit by high fuel prices and adverse foreign currency movement, of the domestic market, IndiGo carried about 56.3% passengers alone. 

Recently during the annual general meeting, the company also announced the appointment of three independent directors to the board who are Vikram Singh Mehta, Birender Singh Dhanoa and Air Chief Marshall (Retd.). Other than them, InterGlobe Aviation also appointed Meleveetil Damodaran as a Non-Independent Non-Executive Director.