Amid the mass cancellation of IndiGo flights and the ongoing crisis, a viral video on social media shows a female passenger confronting airline staff, claiming that her ticket was broken and she apparently wants to return to her home country.
He jumps up to the counter, claims there was no food, and demands a new ticket as the other passengers look on and witness the disturbing situation.
The video has 1 million views.
(Livemint could not independently verify the authenticity of the video. The airline did not respond when contacted by Mint)
Netizens react
One social media user said: “I feel sorry for the ground staff – they are facing the brunt of it.” Another asked: “That’s not a good example! What do employees have to do with management failure?”
“First of all, he doesn’t even speak a language that the staff can understand, and secondly, yelling and howling like that won’t accomplish anything,” commented a third user.
The comment, quoting the woman’s statement, read: “I’m going back to my country. I’m going back because you ruined my plane ticket. So I’m going back to France. I’m going back to France. I’m going back to my country. They destroyed everything. They ruined everything.”
“When they mess up, they expect people to just deal with it. They want to keep people busy. There’s nothing to eat, nowhere to sleep (. I’m leaving and coming back, that’s what she said,” she added.
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Meanwhile, IndiGo canceled more than 1,000 flights on Friday and said it expects operations to return to normal within the next 10 days.
This comes after the country’s largest airline received temporary relief from flight service regulations from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which will also investigate the disruptions that affected thousands of passengers for four consecutive days, according to PTI.
With disruptions and delays mounting, major airports across India were in non-stop chaos as desperate passengers searched for updates and searched for their luggage.
IndiGo, which is responsible for nearly two-thirds of India’s domestic air traffic and typically operates about 2,300 flights a day, failed to adequately prepare for new flight service rules that mandate longer rest periods and restrict night landings.
Read also | ‘We’re sorry’: IndiGo apologizes to customers as chaos continues for fourth day
As the travel crisis entered its fourth day, the DGCA on Friday granted IndiGo temporary exemptions from key flight time restrictions (FDTLs), including night landing rules and definition of night hours. The airline requested these releases to help stabilize its operations.
The new FDTL norms were originally scheduled to come into effect for IndiGo on November 1. Civil Aviation Minister K. Rammohan Naidu said on Friday that operational interventions, including the suspension of new customs rules, would help ease the disruption to the airline, with full service expected to resume within three days.
The DGCA has constituted a four-member committee to determine the causes of the irregularities. It noted that preliminary findings point to deficiencies in IndiGo’s internal oversight, operational preparedness and compliance planning, which warrants an independent review.
Officials added that the FDTL waivers apply only to IndiGo’s A320 family aircraft, which make up the bulk of its fleet, and will remain in effect until February 10, 2026.
