As IndiGo airline continues to expand its routes, both domestically and internationally. Last month, the airline launched flight services to Portugal and Switzerland via Istanbul under its code share agreement with Turkish Airlines. The airline has been in the news for its rapid growth. A video showing an argument between an IndiGo air hostess and a passenger on board an Istanbul to Delhi flight has gone viral.
The viral video shows an Indigo air hostess arguing with a passenger, who called her a servant at one point. The passenger in the video displayed disorderly behaviour toward another crew member over the selection of meals that were made available to him before the air hostess, a crew lead, intervened. One of the crew members sobbed in response to the passenger’s disrespectful and offensive behaviour.
You are pointing finger at me and yelling at me. My crew is crying because of you. Please try to understand, there is a cart and counted meals are uplifted (on the plane). We can only serve what your boarding…” the air hostess can be heard saying in the video before the passenger interrupts and says “Why are you yelling?”
The mid-air argument continued while other crew members tried to calm the situation.
“I am sorry but you cannot talk to the crew like that. I am peacefully listening to you with all due respect but you have to respect the crew as well,” she is seen telling the passenger.
The crew head immediately clarified on spot to the passenger that the crew member is an employee and not a servant.
The event has drawn conflicting responses from both attackers and netizens. While some passengers criticised the crew’s behaviour, many others expressed their gratitude to the crew for meeting the requirements of the passengers during the long journey. There are restrictions on what the crew may provide on flights, according to passengers from a variety of the aviation and hospitality industries. They did, however, add that the team shouldn’t have reacted that way.
“The passenger’s behaviour was uncalled for. His unreasonable ask on an international flight for something as little as a meal and the way he behaved with the crew was unacceptable. Despite that, the should have handled the situation better,” a passenger on the flight said.
Jet Airways CEO Sanjiv Kapoor reacted and supported the air hostess.
“As I had said earlier, the crew are human too. It must have taken a lot to get her to breaking point. Over the years I have seen crew slapped and abused on board flights, called “servant” and worse. Hope she is fine despite the pressure she must be under,” he said in a tweet.
IndiGo Airlines has finally responded to the act and said it has been looking into it.