IndiGo tells staff to defuse tense situations with passengers

NEW DELHI: Budget airline IndiGo has written to its employees emphasising the need to “defuse” tense situations involving passengers.

Last year, the airline was in the eye of the storm when a video went viral showing its ground staff assaulting a passenger following which its president Aditya Ghosh had to apologise. Later, a parliamentary panel reprimanded the airline for the rude behaviour of its employees towards passengers and called it an institutional problem.

“In the recent past, there have been a few cases of our customers displaying unruly behaviour towards our staff (cabin crew, ground crew, and security staff). In such situations, the first action is to defuse the situation — by all possible means. Each one of you is empowered and trained to de-escalate the situation,” according to a letter from its fleet supervisor, Captain Karuna Singh, circulated on Sunday.

The airline also clarified to its employees that seeking an apology letter from a passenger for misconduct was not the right way to resolve a situation and was “most certainly not in any regulation, policy or law.”

The airline sought to differentiate between unruly passengers and those agitated over, for instance, service delivery or a delayed flight.

“You need to defuse issues that may arise out of a raised voice, aggressive body postures not involving physical contact, display of dissatisfaction towards services provided, use of abusive words. This behaviour does not necessarily imply unruly behaviour. We, as aviation personnel, must be able to isolate actual unruly behaviour and take adequate actions as prescribed,” the letter added.

The internal communication said that in an instance where a passenger is deemed to be unruly he or she must be handed over to local security agencies. However, if an employee doesn’t agree with a colleague’s assessment of deeming a passenger unruly, he or she can escalate the concern, as per the letter.

Last month, a doctor accused IndiGo staff of manhandling and deboarding him after he complained of mosquitoes onboard. He said he was also asked to write an apology letter if he wanted to resume his journey.