 "No food or stay, only chaos: The ordeal of 400 IndiGo passengers are stranded at Istanbul airport")
As many as 400 IndiGo passengers who were travelling to Mumbai and New Delhi were reportedly stranded at the Istanbul Airport in Turkey for over 24 hours without any food or accommodation.
The airline responded to one passenger saying the flight was delayed due to operational reasons.
Now, frustrated passengers have taken to social media to share their ordeal.
IndiGo flight delayed and then cancelled
Passengers said on X and LinkedIn that the flight was initially delayed and then suddenly cancelled on December 12.
According to Anushri Bhansali, one of the passengers, people were left stranded when the flight was cancelled, delayed by an hour, and then rescheduled 12 hours later.
@IndiGo6E ,After months of saving to book a flight home to India, I’m now stranded in Istanbul, exhausted and sick, thanks to your delays and cancellations!
— Anushri Bhansali (@BhansaliAnushri) December 13, 2024
Delayed TWICE by an hour, CANCELLED with no notice RESCHEDULED 12 hrs later, NO DETAILS or final confirmation!
She further claimed that passengers were not provided with accommodation, meal coupons, or even an approach from an IndiGo official at the airport, despite complaining of fatigue and a fever.
Also read: No seat available, a passenger stands on IndiGo flight: What’s going on?
Chaos at the airport
Parshwa Mehta, who was supposed to land at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, revealed that the flight that was originally scheduled to depart at 8.15 pm had to be delayed to 11 pm and then rescheduled for 10 am the next day.
Passengers received updates by the Turkish Airlines crew instead of an announcement from IndiGo, which caused even more confusion.
Although the airport had lounge access, he continued, it was “too small to accommodate” so many stranded passengers.
“We were told we’d get lounge access at Istanbul airport as compensation. But the lounge was far too small to accommodate the huge number of stranded passengers. Many of us were left standing for hours without proper facilities. No alternative flights were offered, no proper communication was made, and to top it all off-no plans for reparations were shared,” he wrote in a post on X.
We were told we'd get lounge access at Istanbul airport as compensation. But the lounge was far too small to accommodate the huge number of stranded passengers. Many of us were left standing for hours without proper facilities. Seriously, @IndiGo6E?
— Parshwa Mehta (@parshwa_1995) December 12, 2024
Hitting out at the airline, Mehta said, “This delay isn’t just an inconvenience—it’s a blatant failure of basic customer service. Where is the accountability? Where is the empathy for the passengers stranded overnight at the airport?”
“@IndiGo6E, you owe every passenger on this flight an explanation, an apology, and fair compensation. We need to know how you plan to make up for the lost time, the chaos, and the lack of support.”
Other travellers vented their frustration at the airline online, criticising it for how poorly it handled the matter by failing to provide an explanation or send a representative to the Istanbul Airport.
@IndiGo6E worst flight and very irresponsible and unprofessional airline. I booked the flight from Edh to Delhi via istanbul . I have made stuck at the istanbul airport due to an indigo flight being overbooked. I have been waiting for last 7hrs and no one knows anything
— Aditi Singla (@aditi_singla1) December 12, 2024
With no IndiGo person there to assist them, some even alleged that Turkish Airlines mistreated the passengers, without any representative from IndiGo to help them.
@IndiGo6E Turkish Airlines staff misbehaving with all passengers. No one from Indigo here yet. Shameful.
— divykriti madaan (@MadaanDivykriti) December 12, 2024
Stuck at the airport for more than 26hrs, waiting for Istanbul to Delhi flight.#worstairlinesever pic.twitter.com/WknGA0SJfp
IndiGo among the worst airlines in the world
According to PTI, earlier this month, IndiGo denied an AirHelp poll that said the airline was among the worst in terms of a number of standards, including punctuality.
IndiGo was ranked 103rd out of 109 airlines examined in the 2024 Air Help Score Report, making it one of the worst in the world.
The airline’s handling of flight delay claims and low customer satisfaction are also blamed for its poor ranking.
“IndiGo has rapidly expanded its fleet to over 360 aircraft, now operating more than 2,000 daily flights across 77 domestic and 33 international destinations. While customers still appreciate the quality of service, and flights tend to be fairly punctual, its inclusion among the worst 10 airlines in the world is unsurprising given the measly 0.3/10 score for claim handling,” AirHelp had said in its post about the 10 worst airlines in the world.
IndiGo responded to the rating by criticising the survey’s methodology, citing its inability to disclose the size of the Indian sample, therefore “casting doubt on the survey’s credibility.”
“As India’s most preferred airline, IndiGo refutes the findings of this survey and reiterates its promise of on-time, affordable, courteous and hassle-free travel experience for its customers,” IndiGo’s statement said.
Additionally, the survey placed Air Asia at 94th and Air India at 61st.
Similar incident
A Singapore Airlines flight, which was originally scheduled to depart on December 10, from Cape Town in South Africa to Singapore, was delayed for nearly 32 hours due to a technical issue with the aircraft.
Following an initial seven-hour wait, passengers were later notified that the flight would be rescheduled for December 11 at 7 am (1 pm Singapore time).
Passengers experienced additional delays the following day when they returned to the airport.
“People were beginning to run out of patience due to the lack of confirmation for a rescheduled flight,” a passenger told the Singapore media organisation, Mothership.
Singapore Airlines apologised for the incident, stating that a technical problem had occurred with the Airbus A350-900 when it was grounded at Cape Town International Airport.
According to a representative, passengers were given hotel accommodations and meal vouchers and permitted to exit as engineers worked to resolve the problem.
The flight finally landed at Changi Airport on December 12 at 3 pm Singapore time.
With inputs from agencies
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