Actor Ranvir Shorey called out Indigo airlines on Monday, 15 January, for a nightmarish experience that allegedly took place due to a flight delay of over 10 hours. The actor took to X to describe what happened and criticised Indigo of poor communication and misleading information.
Ranvir said that his flight was scheduled for 2pm, and he and his fellow passengers had checked in two hours before. "Only then were we informed that the flight is 3 hours late due to bad weather (fog). We were not intimated prior to reaching the airport. Still, we did not complain, thinking there must have been a communication issue and were completely understanding, as we were aware that at this time of the year these things happen sometimes. The flight was now scheduled for 5 PM. At 3 PM, after being checked checked in at the airport for more than 3 hours, we were told that the flight will now depart another 3 hours later at 8 PM!"
Ranvir added that the way things were being communicated seemed sketchy. "This seemed fishy to us, as the 'fog' should be clearing up, not getting worse as the day progresses. One of my friends looked up the Indigo website to check the routing of our aircraft. It very clearly said that the aircraft that was supposed to fly us was coming in from Kolkata, which had reported no fog issues, and had already arrived at Bangalore. When we confronted the Indigo staff with this information, he simply said that the website has not been updated properly, and gave us his “personal guarantee” that the flight will take off at around 8 PM," the actor wrote.
Ranvir continued by writing that at 8pm the fliers were informed that there was a further delay and the flight would take off at 10pm. It was only when he pleaded with one of the airlines staff did he divulge that there was no pilot assigned for the flight, the actor wrote.
"I reached out to the staff who had given me his 'personal guarantee' that the flight will take off at 8 PM. He told me on the phone that he had left the airport(!) and that another staff member will now deal with me, still not telling me the real reason of why the flight was delayed further and when it will take off! The new staff assigned to handle me tried the same, usual airline platitudes amd lies to try to pacify me, and I told him not that it will not work with me anymore, as it is obvious that the delay is not due to fog! I appealed to his personal integrity as a human being instead of being a mouthpiece for the airline. Only after this he made a few calls and finally told us the real reason, which was that they did not have a pilot for the flight! He assured me that a pilot has now been assigned and the flight will take off by 10:30 PM. By now I was feeling completely helpless. I somehow made arrangements for someone to watch over my child as I knew that we had been fed lies non-stop for the last 8 hours and were in a hopeless situation. After this, we had to face another 2-3 hours of lies and delays before a pilot showed up and our flight took off at around midnight, 10 hours after the scheduled time of the flight!," Ranvir recounted.
Shorey ended his note by writing that the passengers will be filing a complaint against Indigo for the "trauma" they had to face.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)