Already facing several hurdles, beleaguered airline IndiGo on Wednesday came under fire from Tamil Nadu minister TRB Rajaa for delays. Rajaa accused the low-cost carrier of treating passengers cheaply and not taking passenger comfort and time management seriously.
ALSO READ | Is the recent IndiGo chaos a buying opportunity or a warning bell?
Why did TRB Rajaa lash out at IndiGo?
Rajaa said he was booked on IndiGo’s Chennai-Tiruchirappalli flight 6E 7191, which was scheduled to leave at 9:10 AM on Makar Sankranti morning. However, right from the pre-boarding period to the takeoff — the flight was plagued with massive delays. What made matters worse was the airline’s failure to inform passengers of the delays in advance, he claimed.
“Many woke up at 6am or before on a smoggy bhogi morning to reach the airport at 8am only to find the flight has been delayed. ETD is announced as 11 am. Suddenly the boarding starts around 10 am itself. Passengers were slightly relieved, but , not for long,” he posted on X.
6E 7191 Was supposed to leave Chennai at 9:10am.
But that’s just the scheduled time for the passengers who don’t have ANY OTHER CHOICE : ) So @IndiGo6E as usual takes its own sweet time to start boarding.
Many woke up at 6am or before on a smoggy bhogi morning to reach the…
— Dr. T R B Rajaa (@TRBRajaa) January 14, 2026
“The early boarding was Only to take a bus ride all around Chennai airport to the extremity of the runway and back to what we regulars call the graveyard bay. This is the bay that is usually allotted to the Last ATRs of the day or in this case to the cheapest airline…in all its sense…in the nation. A low cost airline shouldn’t mean Cheap treatment of passengers,” he lashed out.
He said even after the passengers boarded the bus to the tarmac, the wait continued. After a nearly 20 minutes of standing inside the bus, he found out the reason for the delay — passengers from a connecting flight hadn’t arrived.
ALSO READ | DGCA’s inquiry committee probing IndiGo meltdown submits report
“The ride to the bay… was a good 30 mins. Finally after boarding one would think the ordeal was over but no… We bearded the flight at around 10:50 only to find out we had to wait for more passengers from other aircraft. Clearly IndiGo runs a service which depends on the arrival of several other aircraft. One would think after the pathetic mess that IndiGo created a month ago they will take passenger comfort and time more seriously,” Rajaa fumed.
Story continues below this ad
Tagging Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, Rajaa said he had better hopes from him.
Passengers complain over IndiGo flight cancellations, refunds process
IndiGo, which has been hit by flight cancellations since November, is still dealing with the same — a large portion of which is also caused by poor visibility. Passengers are taking to X to complain about delays and cancellations.
Many have complained that third-party aggregators are taking too much time to refund the amount for cancelled flights and even then are charging fees for flights cancelled by airlines.
An X user, Sanhita Agarwal, who claimed to have lost Rs 40,000 in pre-paid hotel bookings, due to IndiGo’s flight cancellations, said: “A partial ticket refund is NOT compensation. Repeated cancellations + failed rerouting + no alternate arrangement = serious deficiency in service [sic].”
Story continues below this ad
Another user, Ankit Jethaliya (@AnkitJethaliya1), said: “I am not receiving any proper response in the chat. I am looking for the DGCA mandatory compensation for the flight cancellations. I received an email from IndiGo to apply for compensation via link to which I have already done until date no compensation received kindly do needful [sic].”
