India’s Indigo : Here’s why we are hanging the airline for the error of a few employees

Caveat emptor: I am an unabashed admirer of the airline. Indigo, to me, has spelt punctuality, professionalism and an emphasis on eliminating stuffiness that I have found refreshing. They cut the cloying and clinging around passengers that others espoused. They made passengers in mid-flight clear their trash without much fuss. They made much noise about their many before-time departures in skies where airline delays were taken for granted. And, then there is their branding – a cool, cool blue, crisp livery, uniforms and in-flight magazine with innumerable plays on their airline code, 6E. A delayed Indigo flight is a rarity. Indian travelers have now begun to take Indigo’s operational standards for granted and that is the best mark of its success, cramped leg space notwithstanding!

More Indians fly today because of Indigo: With a domestic air traffic market share that has been trending above 40%, Indigo is a home-grown Indian success story in a difficult, complex industry with prohibitive maintenance costs. They have been pocketing profits year after year, adding to their fleet, expanding routes and deepening their connection with the Indian flier. Indigo has added flights to smaller cities from which older airlines have pulled out for profitability reasons. More people fly today due to Indigo.

With a domestic air traffic market share that has been trending above 40%, Indigo is a home-grown Indian success story in a difficult, complex industry with prohibitive maintenance costs.

To truly gauge the success of this low-cost carrier throwback to the days of another you might have forgotten, Air Deccan, also an LCC. It started expansively, offering tickets for as much as Rs.1/- , but could not sustain its promise or its service. It was bought over to merge with the then high flyer Kingfisher Airlines, contributing, in no mean measure, to the red ink on the books of the latter. Kingfisher’s favorite color, red, was soon enough used to write its epitaph, causing wide-spread misery to employees, vendors and banks to which it owes millions!

As low as it gets: Now, cut to the episode which happened last month but has come to light a few days back, of a passenger being manhandled by Indigo ground staff upon alighting from a flight. The unsavory incident, filmed in graphic detail, by another Indigo staffer on mobile camera has been viral on the web, mobiles and social media. The media and sundry experts have gone to town with their views, almost all unequivocally condemnatory of the airline. Indigo President Aditya Ghosh’s statement that he has personally spoken to the passenger and apologized has not been accepted by many. Now, let me state that I think the incident was unfortunate and reprehensible. The treatment that Indigo staff meted out to the passenger on the apron was avoidable. When Ghosh says that it is not representative of Indigo’s customer care standards, I agree. It is not representative of any customer care standard, let alone that of an airline. Since there was considerable manhandling involved, it is surprising that both parties have chosen to bypass the law enforcement agencies altogether, though more than twenty days have passed since the incident. Why?

Lords of the Skies: I am also no fan of the Indian air passengers. Easily outraged and offended, the Indian flyer, I feel, believes that the world is their entitlement since they have paid the price of an airline ticket! It is hard to understand why the scramble for overhead luggage happens as soon as the aircraft stops at its bay after landing. After all it is not a bus that will roll on to the next destination within a few seconds! Then there is the jostle to exit the aircraft, as if their life depended on how fast they get out. Several passengers do not switch off their mobile phones or position their seat backs in accordance with safety requirements despite repeated announcements. Last year an article called India the ‘dreaded destination’ for foreign flight attendants. The reasons in it are cogent and have been experienced by frequent flyers all over the country. You can read the article here. The many incidents of airline abuse involving high and mighty passengers are symptomatic of the malaise that runs deep in the Indian flyer’s psyche. Please don’t for a moment assume that I am tarring all flyers with the same brush. Far from it. Flying remains one of the more pleasurable experiences in India because of the many urbane, considerate people who fly, minding their business while being deeply conscious of safety regulations and the comfort of others.

The many incidents of airline abuse involving high and mighty passengers are symptomatic of the malaise that runs deep in the Indian flyer’s psyche.

Decoding our brutal dealings with success: And yet, the condemnation in this incident is so fiercely skewed against Indigo that it feels like a punch in the plexus. There have been many who have rejected a ‘mere’ apology as inadequate while calling for action against the airline. One Human Resources worthy held forth on how such things happen when profit is put above human considerations and the alignment between the corporation’s and individual values is disrupted. That takes some decoding, for sure! We would also need to decode why we are this brutal with our success stories whenever they stumble.

Indigo, most likely, has woken up to the fact of its Indian pedigree. It is a rough awakening but one that, hopefully, will not let it slip on its standards. Or, allow a repetition of the episode.

The answer may lie in our poverty mentality, created by centuries of colonialism in which success for the native Indian almost always, almost without exception meant the decimation of many others of our ilk. Success is, therefore, a finite resource which has to be competed for and won by defeating others. Small wonder then that so many of our workplaces lack a culture of appreciation. It would be construed as a sign of weakness. Helping others win would almost certainly put paid to our own ambitions, we think. Indigo, most likely, has woken up to the fact of its Indian pedigree. It is a rough awakening but one that, hopefully, will not let it slip on its standards. Or, allow a repetition of the episode.