IndiGo's current CEO Ronojoy Dutta will retire at the end of September and Elbers' appointment is expected to be effective from Oct. 1, the company said http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20220518:nBSE30g789 on Wednesday.

"Given Mr. Elbers' deep understanding of the business, his legendary leadership qualities coupled with his energy and passion, we are ever so confident that under his stewardship, IndiGo will play a pivotal role in this growth opportunity," the airline's managing director Rahul Bhatia said in a statement.

Elbers is currently the chief executive of KLM, the Dutch arm of Air France-KLM, where he started his career in 1992.

India has seen a strong rebound in domestic air travel and with the government easing COVID restrictions, international travel - where profits are higher - is also on the rise.

IndiGo turned a profit during the Oct-Dec quarter after two years of losses and had previously expressed ambitions to expand to places like Moscow, Cairo and Manila with non-stop flights using its narrowbody fleet of Airbus SE planes.

However, the airline has recently seen a churn of top executives.

In late March, IndiGo parent InterGlobe Aviation named Gaurav Negi as its new chief financial officer after Jiten Chopra resigned. William Boulter, the airline's chief commercial officer, is also leaving the company in July.

The management changes at the airline come months after one of IndiGo's co-founders Rakesh Gangwal resigned from the board and said he was planning to cut his stake over the next five years.

Elbers' appointment also comes at a time when competition in the Indian aviation market is on the rise.

Last week, Air India, owned by the Tata Group, appointed Singapore Airlines veteran, Campbell Wilson as CEO to turnaround the former state-run carrier. Wilson was CEO of budget carrier Scoot prior to his appointment.

Indian full-service carrier Jet Airways is charting a return from bankruptcy while newly-minted budget carrier Akasa has plans to start flying this summer.

(Reporting by Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru and Aditi Shah in New Delhi; Editing by Kim Coghill, Elaine Hardcastle)

By Chandini Monnappa and Aditi Shah