Around 400 IndiGo passengers traveling between New Delhi and Mumbai and Turkey have reportedly been stranded at Istanbul airport for over 24 hours.
In response to a passenger, the airline said the flight was being delayed due to operational reasons.
Passengers claimed on social media platforms X and LinkedIn that the flight was first delayed and then canceled without any notice. Anushree Bhansali, one of the passengers, said the flight was delayed twice an hour, then canceled and finally rescheduled 12 hours later, leaving passengers stranded. Complaining of exhaustion and fever, he also said that no accommodation, food vouchers were given to the passengers and even the IndiGo representative at the airport did not contact him.
Rohan Raja, another passenger, said that after the 6.40 am flight from Delhi was cancelled, people had to struggle in the cold weather as the airline did not provide them any transportation to the accommodations allegedly provided.
Parshva Mehta wrote that the time limit for travel to Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport was extended from 8.15 pm to 11 pm and then to 10 am the next day. Moreover, there was chaos as there was no announcement from IndiGo and no information was received from the Turkish Airlines crew.
“We were told that we would get the use of the lounge at Istanbul Airport as compensation. But the lounge was too small to accommodate the large number of stranded passengers. Many of us had to stand for hours without proper facilities. No alternative flight was offered.” There was no proper communication, and most of all, no compensation plan was shared,” he wrote in a post on X.
Mr. Mehta, we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and will get back to you. ~paulami
– Indigo (@IndiGo6E) 12 December 2024
Hitting out at the airline’s “gross failure of basic customer service”, Mr Mehta said every passenger would have to be given an apology and appropriate compensation.
Earlier this month, the AirHelp Score Report 2024 placed IndiGo among the world’s worst airlines, ranking it 103rd out of 109 analysed. In the report, Air India has been ranked 61st and AirAsia has been ranked 94th.
