Disappointing experience with Indigo Airlines; Flyers share anecdotes

Indigo, for me, holds the record for the most delayed departure in my 22-plus years of flying.

BHPian vigsom recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Introduction

This is my brief account of some recent experiences with India's so-called flagship airline and the shift from "Always on time" to "Never on time".

Observations

I don't know if users have noticed, but for the first time in Indian skies, I'm seeing YL and ES-tagged aircraft, all white with just the Indigo lettering undertaking domestic sectors. Until now, it was only VT-tagged aircraft in Indigo. I'm assuming this has to do with the A320neo and 321neo engine issues, warranting some phone aircraft being wet-leased.

Experiences

I've had some disappointing experiences with Indigo in the last few months, and things have only gotten worse in recent times when one just can't bank on Indigo to take one from point A to point B on time. Flights are almost never on time after, say, the first one or two services that an aircraft does in the day. It becomes worse as the day progresses and can throw passengers' plans totally off schedule. Here are some examples:

1. Flight 807 out of BLR and the return 808 from BDQ are delayed every day. Some of these delays are as high as 3.5hrs from scheduled departure
2. The late arrival should still translate into the next flight pushing back in approximately 40 mins but that keeps getting progressively worse - sometimes it is an hour, and sometimes 2 hours

The only good thing on the part of the airline is text messages for every rescheduling, followed by an automated message via a telephone call. Is there any consolation to passengers who look forward to an on-time departure? Indigo, for me, holds the record for the most delayed departure in my 22-plus years of flying. India's coolest airline isn't so cool anymore!

Do chip in with your experiences.

Here's what BHPian Gansan had to say on the matter:

My wife and I went to Hyderabad from Chennai on 30th Apri'24 by IndiGo to visit our son. The scheduled departure was 2215 hours. But it was getting pushed back incrementally by 30 minutes at a time without any reason. We learned the aircraft was to fly Chennai-Dacca and Dacca-Chennai before it went on the Chennai-Hyderabad sector. This info was provided by our son from Flight radar!

Turned out it left a couple of hours late for the Dacca trip and returned only by 1 a.m. We boarded at 1.30 a.m. but there was no pushback even after quite some time. Seems there was a last-minute crew change and a new first officer had to join. He was woken up and had to reach the airport from home which took a while. We finally took off at 2.20 a.m., landed at Hyderabad at 3.10 a.m. and reached our son's home by 4.45 a.m. Which was my wife's usual wake-up time and she quipped she need not bother about going to sleep, at last.

Well, at least the captain announced IndiGo were sorry for the inconvenience caused!

Here's what BHPian anshumandun had to say on the matter:

I flew Indigo from Delhi to Bangalore last Friday. Firstly, terminal 2 is like an exclusive Indigo terminal and it's like a railway station from the past. Crowded, with no queues, and people pushing each other to board first.

There are not enough buses to carry people from the terminal to the plane. One bus was going to and fro for our plane so obviously boarding took 1 hour to complete. The flight was delayed by 50 minutes!

I had a chicken sandwich during the flight and I was sick for the next 2 days with an upset stomach.

I am not flying Indigo anymore.

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