Where is Indigo Airlines headed to? Is it trying to fake numbers?

I was travelling to Bangalore from Mumbai for the weekend. I have had previous experiences where I get calls on the day of flight saying, “your jet airways flight has been delayed by 1 hour or 2 hours” and it used to make me annoyed because all the consequent plans would have to be rescheduled. I even missed couple of wedding functions because of this. I recently thought of giving the re-branded SpiceJet a try. This time the flight got cancelled but I was notified a day earlier and given all other options. Their twitter handle, https://twitter.com/flyspicejet is exceptionally well handled & customer friendly. I was kind of satisfied with them.

This time, wanting to be on time, I preferred to select Indigo! Was it a wise choice? Let’s try to figure out! I reach airport on time for my 8:35PM flight. Seated at the designated gate in Mumbai airport, it was a little weird that even the flight details were not displayed at the TV screens on the gate- probably a “glitch”. While the boarding time was 7:50PM, not even a single employee of indigo was there even by 8PM. This made me anxious, and everyone around too that what’s happening. We asked the guard but he wouldn’t know anything either. We were all waiting for any kind announcement or change in display board to “delayed” or some SMS or something. Nothing comes up! Some people even got anxious that the boarding gate has changed & they might miss the flight. They go around and ask employees in near by gates. They ask to wait. At around 8:15PM, an employee comes at the counter, who doesn’t even make an announcement so I went upfront and asked- “When are we boarding?”. Reply- “Sir the previous flight is delayed, it is going to land in sometime now, we should start boarding by 9PM.”

I was annoyed for obvious reasons. They could have made a change on the TV screen, showing delayed by an hour. Or at least an announcement at the gate. But no! It looked like they didn’t want the world to know that Indigo does get late, yet I gave them a benefit of doubt thinking they might have missed it. As soon as passengers de-boarded from the flight, within 15–20 minutes after that boarding started. It would have been around 9:10PM and the flight take-off was by 9:40PM roughly. There were a few rough moments in the flight too when it felt like the pilot was trying to rush so as to reduce the delay for the next destination or it could be rough weather. But it felt like a person driving rashly on the road to reach sooner- a risky option. We reached Bangalore safely.

Now coming back from Bangalore to Delhi, a similar thing happens. For my 9:30PM flight, while the boarding should begin at 8:45PM nobody was around up to 9PM, then again the same thing repeats. So announcements or change in the display board- they showed “security” up to 9:15PM & displayed estimated & scheduled time as 9:30PM. What a joke!

At 9:13PM, 6E474 is still at security for the 9:30PM scheduled departure

Now it really looks like these guys are trying to fool everyone else, because a red colored “delayed” is a big hit on their market reputation. This time, something worse happened. As more & more time passed, people got very anxious and by the time boarding actually started (a little later than 9:30PM roughly), the place had become a market place with no real lines & everyone wanting to rush in. Because an unannounced wait is really too bad. It’s annoying how Indigo was operating.

Here are my few comments:

1. I know you want to be on time, then either be on time or accept that the flight is delayed. A red “delayed” will only calm the waiting passengers & some small delays are “OK”. We can go with it, but you have to respect your passengers & keep us informed too!!!
2. It most probably is an attempt to get good books with “minimum delays”. Whether it’s the reality or only some forged facts, is what is going to be interesting.
3. The cleaning & all other checks between the de-boarding & the next boarding is very very quick. Although everything is going good as of now with no incidents, isn’t that quickness coming at a cost? Is some aspect of the passenger security being compromised to be on-time? I might not be the best person to comment on this, but this worries me..

If this goes on, it’s only a matter of time before the customer-company bond is broken with Indigo. It has already happened with Air India, it is healing with SpiceJet & is in intermediate with Jet Airways. Indigo, you are at the top but the question is- Where are you headed to?