IndiGo Passengers Face Trouble to Get Back Checked-in Baggage

Hyderabad:Continuing the flight disruption for the eighth day, IndiGo on Tuesday cancelled 58 flights— 43 departures and five arrivals — from the Shamshabad airport, causing avoidable trouble to passengers. However, airport officials informed passengers about the cancellation in advance to prevent them travelling to the airport only to find the flight cancelled. There were no queues at the airline counters.

Addressing concerns of passengers the about difficulty in retrieving checked-in baggage, IndiGo officials said the baggage will be sent to their respective addresses.

This flight disruption had a cascading effect on cab services, affecting those working in the airport ecosystem.

Private cab drivers, who are dependent on the airport for business, had a “no meter down” day. Mohammed Akbar, a cab driver, said, “During the first two or three days, business was good. Customers whose flights were cancelled were travelling. For the last four days, business has been really bad. On Tuesday, it was the worst. We have been here since morning. It’s 3 pm now, but there is zero business.”

Satish, another cab driver, said, “This airport provides a lot of business to us. We are waiting for the situation to get normal so that we can have regular business.”

Three passengers — Simran, Harmeet and Lal Singh — who were waiting for their 9.30 pm flight to Kuwait, said, “We are coming from Amritsar. We reached Hyderabad at 12.50 pm, on time. We were so worried. If we miss this flight, we will be missing our international flight. We are going abroad for jobs.”

Explaining their ordeal over the last eight days, IndiGo airhostesses and ground staff said, “Passengers were in rage, using all sorts of unparliamentary language. We had no clue about the situation. We were attacked. Our hearts were pounding, and had tears in our eyes. With the limited information, we managed the unmanageable.”

A group of airhostesses said, “After the long delays and cancellations, when passengers entered the flight they were mostly tired and in a mood of anger. We didn’t know how to manage. Our cabin crew didn’t even know when we were flying. We reached home after three or four days. This is one of the worst experiences.”

According to a senior trainer, “The present crisis has been precipitated deliberately out of sheer arrogance.”

He blamed government policies and IndiGo for the crisis. “There is a huge backlog of trainee pilots who were supposed to join the airline. The aspirants had been issued letters stating that they would be inducted only in September 2026 — almost a year from now. The trainees spend huge money to get trained. The airline did not absorb them because it would need to pay a stipend of `75,000. After taking them on the rolls, they need to undergo training with the airline for at least six months.

“The backlog of pilots who completed the training is 5,000,” he said.

“India needs 1,600 airplanes. Each aircraft requires eight crew members, which is a captain and a co-pilot. Do we have those many flying officers when the country has very few institutes? Hyderabad has five such institutes.”

He added that bringing operations back to normal by adding more pilots will take around one year. “If any relaxation is given, it will jeopardise the safety of flying,” he said.