Rahul Bhatia
Co-founder and Managing Director, IndiGo
BASc in Electrical Engineering, University of Waterloo (1984)
About
Rahul Bhatia is the co-founder, promoter and managing director of InterGlobe Aviation, which runs IndiGo, India's largest airline, and group managing director of InterGlobe Enterprises. He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Waterloo in Canada (1984). In 1989 he established InterGlobe, starting with air transport management, and over three decades widened it into aviation, hotels, logistics, technology, pilot training and aircraft maintenance engineering. In 2005 he set up IndiGo with Rakesh Gangwal, a former United Airlines executive; it began flying in August 2006, became India's biggest carrier by passenger share in 2012 and listed in 2015. The two promoters later fell out over governance, and in February 2022 the board named Bhatia managing director for five years. After CEO Pieter Elbers resigned in March 2026 following the December 2025 scheduling crisis, Bhatia took charge as interim CEO; Willie Walsh became chief executive in August 2026, with Bhatia continuing as managing director. He has said the BluChip loyalty programme should become a standalone business within five years.
Bhatia was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young in 2011 and appeared on Forbes' Global Game Changers list in 2016. His father, Kapil Bhatia, who started Delhi Express Travels in 1964, is executive chairman of InterGlobe Enterprises. The dispute with Gangwal began in May 2019, when Gangwal accused Bhatia of related-party dealings; the matter went to the London Court of International Arbitration. Since he took charge in March 2026, IndiGo has made more than half a dozen senior leadership changes, among them a new CFO, chief human resources officer and chief strategy officer; in September 2026 it hired former Tata Payments CEO Gaurav Hazrati to run BluChip, its travel marketplace and financial services.
Source: interglobe.com
