Rajya Sabha: Standing Committee reprimands Indigo, says airline needs to look inwards

Standing Committee in the Rajya Sabha observed that there have been many recent incidents of manhandling, discourteous and rude behaviour by airlines staff.

The committee went on to reprimand Indigo airlines and said, "an airline like Indigo needs to look inwards to see what the reason is behind its employee's rude, discourteous and indifferent behaviour towards customers".

IndiGo's brand image had come under fire in 2017 with many cases of its ground staff misbehaving with passengers coming to light. The airlines tried its best to tackle the issues, sometimes by issuing an apology, sometimes by taking action against its staff and sometimes even taking a stand for its staff.

According to the committee, the airlines staff are "uncooperative and condescending" at times. "The problems afflicting airlines are not personal but insititutional" and "an institution like Indigo has to develop a consumer friendly approach in dealing with their passengers", the committee added.

The committee has insisted on soft skill straining for all employees across airlines.

One Member of the Committee pointed out "the attitude of airlines staff is as if they are on some high ground and the passengers are like herds, as if passengers are uneducated and illiterate ones who do not know anything, who have not flown before. Occasionally, the airlines staff murmur "please" and "thank you" but beyond that, their attitude is rude. The ground staff is worse than the cabin crew of the airlines".

The President of Indigo had earlier said that they hire from tier 2 and 3 cities and those from government schools do not speak fluent English and hence cannot be trained in four or five weeks.

The committee displayed strong objection to this statement and said "Government schools and colleges produce the best students of the country and we have a duty to nurture and promote such students to achieve their full potential. If a particular airlines has grown exponentially, they should deploy a proportionate amount to the training of their staff instead of misbehaving and manhandling the passengers or blaming the youngsters from Tier II and III cities and Government schools".

The Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation assured the Committee that any employee of an airline who is found to be indulging in some kind of unnecessary and violent behavior may be debarred from entering into any of the civil aviation airports as an employee.

The Committee opined that merely taking strictest action against the employees does not absolve the airline of its guilt of the incident.