The High-Altitude Scam: Exposing The Dirty Secrets Of Indigo Airlines

In a country where air travel was once a luxury and now a stressful necessity, IndiGo Airlines has successfully rebranded itself as the no-nonsense, on-time, ultra-efficient budget carrier for the average Indian. But beneath that smooth PR engine, beneath the robotic cabin crew smiles and the polished blue uniforms, lies a festering cesspool of systemic exploitation, safety cover-ups, deceptive business practices, and regulatory capture.

Indigo: How it harasses its customers?

For too long, IndiGo has been flying high, untouched by real scrutiny. The media has either been too afraid or too cozy to dig into the airline’s dark underbelly. But the cracks are beginning to show. Recently, a passenger, who boarded a Mumbai-bound IndiGo flight, described his experience as feeling “like a cargo”, adding that the airline would no longer be his “first pick”. He also said that IndiGo has started to “resemble a government-run bus service”. Rele, a frequent traveller, said he typically looks for “basic comfort, efficiency, and a little empathy” when choosing an airline. He noted that IndiGo used to be his “most preferred low-cost and high on experience” airline.

Also, a couple of days ago, a visually impaired passenger alleged that he and his mother were mistreated by IndiGo staff at Mumbai airport during a recent journey to Guwahati. The incident, which occurred on June 14, was shared in a detailed LinkedIn post by Turab Chimthanawala, who accused the airline of failing to provide promised assistance and of displaying a lack of empathy.

The Human Cost: Exploiting the Cabin Crew and Ground Staff

Recently, An employee of IndiGo has lodged a police complaint against three of his seniors, alleging that they used casteist slurs against him during a company meeting, officials said. IndiGo, however, dismissed the claims as “baseless” and said it will extend its support to the law enforcement agencies as required.

According to the complainant Sharan A, he belongs to the Adi Dravida community, a Scheduled Caste, and was subjected to caste-based remarks several times at the workplace. During a meeting on April 28, IndiGo employees Tapas Dey, Manish Sahni and Captain Rahul Patil made “derogatory remarks” against the complainant, the FIR stated. He further alleged that he informed the CEO and the ethics committee of IndiGo about what happened during the April 28 meeting, but no action was taken. After this, he lodged a police complaint.

Hence, one can imagine that behind every bright, cheerful “Hello Ma’am, Hello Sir” at the boarding gate, there is an invisible story of pain. IndiGo has long been accused of ruthless labor practices, especially against its female cabin crew.

The airline imposes draconian weight checks, conducts monthly grooming audits, and allegedly fires employees for gaining weight, as if the measure of a woman’s professionalism is the size of her waist. In September 2024, an advertisement of Indigo was critised for the similar manner. Netizens were quick to point that the airlines, like many other, employed only female cabin crew with selective beauty standards.

Add to that the excessive flying hours, often crossing legal limits. Several cabin crew members have anonymously revealed that they are pressured into flying back-to-back sectors without adequate rest, risking both their mental health and passenger safety.

Ground staff have also raised alarms about abusive supervisors, underpayment, and no union representation. The airline celebrates itself as “lean and efficient”, but this “efficiency” is built on broken backs and exploited labor.

The Fare Fraud: A Budget Carrier That’s Never Budget

IndiGo proudly calls itself a low-cost carrier, but anyone who has booked a ticket recently knows the farce that is. Base fares may appear low, but by the time you add seat selection, meals, baggage fees, and convenience charges, you’re paying a premium price for a cattle-class experience. Worse, IndiGo has repeatedly been accused of predatory pricing. During peak seasons, or in routes where they enjoy monopoly, fares are jacked up 10x, sometimes crossing even the business class fares of full-service airlines.

In 2020, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) investigated IndiGo for price manipulation during festive seasons and emergency situations, including natural calamities. Nothing came of it, proof that profit always trumps ethics.

The Great Refund Loot: COVID-19 and the Theft of Hope

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck and flights were grounded, passengers hoped that at least their hard-earned money would be safe. They were wrong. IndiGo sat on hundreds of crores of passenger refunds. Customers were offered worthless credit shells instead of money. Complaints flooded social media, legal notices were issued, and petitions reached consumer courts.

Even after government directives, IndiGo delayed, denied, and deflected, issuing half-refunds or locking customers in a maze of terms and conditions. For many, it wasn’t just a lost flight, it was money needed for food, medicines, and survival. IndiGo showed no empathy, just algorithms.

Safety Shortcuts: Flying on Thin Ice

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of IndiGo’s operations lies in aviation safety shortcuts. In recent years, multiple aircraft incidents have raised eyebrows:

• In 2022, a flight from Delhi to Bengaluru had to make an emergency landing due to engine vibration, traced later to improper maintenance.

• In 2023, a pilot raised an alert that safety checks were being logged without actual physical inspection to save turnaround time.

• The DGCA has issued multiple warnings to IndiGo for pilot fatigue, over-rostering, and failure to comply with pre-flight checklists.

• As recent as today, A “minor technical snag” was detected in an IndiGo flight from Indore to Bhubaneswar carrying 140 persons, due to which it took off about an hour late from its scheduled time.

Yet, these incidents are buried quickly. The media reports them briefly, only to vanish the next day. Passengers remain clueless.

Whistleblowers have repeatedly claimed that IndiGo’s obsession with OTP (on-time performance) has made it compromise on basic safety practices, prioritizing punctuality over protection.

Corporate Nepotism and Insider Trading Allegations

In the boardrooms, IndiGo’s story isn’t much cleaner. Founders Rahul Bhatia and Rakesh Gangwal were once hailed as aviation visionaries. But by 2021, their internal war revealed the rot.

Gangwal accused Bhatia of running IndiGo like a personal fiefdom. Allegations included:

• Nepotistic deals favoring Bhatia-linked firms.
• Related-party transactions with no transparency.
• Board manipulation and governance failures.

While SEBI intervened with minor penalties, the case exposed IndiGo’s complete lack of internal checks, raising serious doubts over its financial disclosures.

Misleading Investors and Shareholder Betrayal

For a company listed on the stock exchange, transparency is non-negotiable. Yet, IndiGo has repeatedly misled investors with selective disclosures, cooked-up press releases, and vague clarifications. There have been fluctuations in fuel surcharge disclosures, unusual depreciation treatments, and opaque debt restructuring details. Small shareholders are always the last to know when something’s wrong. Big institutional investors play along—everyone profits, except the common man.

Environmental Hypocrisy: Greenwashing and Carbon Crimes

IndiGo loves to brag about being eco-conscious. Their website proudly displays slogans like “Flying towards a greener tomorrow.”

But in reality, IndiGo has done little more than surface-level greenwashing:

• It continues to operate short-haul flights that could be replaced with trains, increasing carbon footprint.
• Minimal investment in biofuel trials, unlike international peers.
• Poor carbon offsetting transparency.

They plant a few trees and run ads. Meanwhile, they remain one of the largest emitters of carbon in Indian civil aviation.

Vendor Exploitation and Supply Chain Abuses

Behind the scenes, IndiGo’s supply chain is rife with vendor bullying. Several small catering services, cleaning firms, and tech subcontractors have alleged that IndiGo delays payments, squeezes margins, and then blacklists vendors without warning.

These SMEs survive on thin margins. Delays of even one payment cycle can collapse their operations. But IndiGo, with its massive cash reserves, uses power imbalance to force unreasonable contract terms.

The Media Silence: Bought Loyalty or Institutional Cowardice?

One would expect a scandal-prone airline to be under constant media radar. But the Indian media landscape is eerily quiet when it comes to IndiGo. Is it because IndiGo is a heavy advertiser? Or is it just that most journalists have accepted that airline corruption is too complex, too protected, too elite to touch?

This silence is complicity. And it needs to be shattered.

The Regulatory Failure: DGCA as Toothless Watchdog

India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued several notices to IndiGo over the years. But action rarely follows. Be it the weight-shaming scandals, the overworked pilots, or the COVID refund frauds, the DGCA has acted more like a PR agency than a regulator. Why is IndiGo allowed to violate norms again and again without serious penalties?

At The End, We As A Nation Deserves Better!

IndiGo may call itself the pride of Indian aviation, but pride built on deception is not worth celebrating. As passengers, we are not just customers; we are citizens. And we deserve airlines that put people over profit, safety over speed, and dignity over data-driven abuse.

The time has come for regulators, media, investors, and citizens to stop clapping for IndiGo’s take-offs and start asking: Where is this flight really going, and at what cost?

Until that happens, every IndiGo boarding call is just another chapter in a national scam that flies under the radar.