Indigo’s Trouble: Travellers Discontent with Airline Services Throughout 2025, Not Just Last Week

Budget airline IndiGo has been facing a challenging wave of flight cancellations this past week, yet a new LocalCircles survey indicates that passenger dissatisfaction with the airline has been escalating over the past year. Key issues such as delays, inadequate communication, and declining staff professionalism have surfaced as major concerns for travelers in 2023, as highlighted in the nationwide survey.

The research, which gathered 15,938 responses from travelers across 301 districts, underscores the difficulties faced by passengers as the airline’s service quality has notably deteriorated despite its operational expansion.

The LocalCircles survey found that issues related to timeliness and staff behavior were the most common grievances. Approximately 54% of respondents indicated that punctuality was a significant shortfall for the airline, while 45% of surveyed passengers reported that the airline’s staff exhibited rudeness and a lack of courtesy.
Also read | IndiGo crisis leads to ‘full-blown chaos’ at airports: Passenger feedback on X

Advertisement

Travelers often cited delayed departures, last-minute schedule changes, and insufficient information during disruptions. Many shared that their encounters with staff were characterized by impatience and a lack of empathy, particularly during flight delays.

Additional concerns raised by passengers over the year included poor baggage handling (42%), inadequate communication from IndiGo’s customer service (32%), and 27% of respondents noted that the quality and upkeep of the aircraft were substandard.

Also read | Over 250 IndiGo flights grounded as airline struggles with crew shortages

Meanwhile, 23% reported dissatisfaction with the food quality provided by the airline, and 19% identified other issues. Overall, in comparison to 2024, complaints regarding transparency in addressing issues rose from 27% to 45%.

The results indicate a continuous decline in service quality throughout the year for IndiGo, rather than a temporary crisis caused by the recent crew shortage or other external operational factors.

According to the LocalCircles survey, the uptick in complaints over the last 12 months correlates with varying levels of on-time performance, which decreased from 92.4% in 2021 to 85.4% in 2023, falling to 69.69% in 2024. The current on-time arrival rate has somewhat rebounded to about 80-82%.

Many respondents have called for a more robust mechanism for addressing passenger grievances. LocalCircles noted that several of the issues raised by passengers lie beyond the scope of routine DGCA investigations. The survey included responses from 15,938 IndiGo passengers, consisting of 62% men and 38% women.