IndiGo Airline Responds After Woman Shares Friend’s Frustrating 9-Hours Flight Delay Experience

IndiGo Airlines is once again facing criticism after a woman took to LinkedIn to share her frustrating experience with a 9-hour flight delay on a route that typically takes just 2 hours. Her post quickly gained traction, sparking discussions about the airline’s service reliability. IndiGo responded to the incident via the comment section.

IndiGo faces backlash after woman shared her friend’s 9-hour flight delay experience

Once again an incident has happened that has made people questioni IndiGo’s service. A Delhi-based woman, Dirgha Gupta, recently took to LinkedIn to express her anger and disappointment with IndiGo Airlines after a deeply frustrating experience faced by her family friend. What was supposed to be a short, two-hour flight from Delhi to Hyderabad turned into a nine-hour nightmare for her friend, Major Govind Dwivedi, who is a defence pilot by profession. The incident occurred on April 11, and Dirgha’s detailed post has sparked fresh criticism against the airline.

“What should’ve been a smooth 2-hour flight turned into a 9+ hour ordeal — marked by mismanagement, misinformation, and apathy.”

In her LinkedIn post, Dirgha described the entire episode as one filled with “mismanagement, misinformation, and apathy.” She claimed that passengers were left in the dark, receiving false updates every 20 to 30 minutes. Even though the skies were clear and other flights were operating, the airline allegedly kept blaming the delay on weather conditions. According to Dirgha, the real issue seemed to be missing crew and a lack of coordination.

Also read: IndiGo Responds After Passenger Accuses Flight Attendant Of Stealing 5-Yr-Old Daughter’s Gold Chain

Business Standard

“False claims of weather delay, despite clear skies and operational flights
Missing crew, misleading updates every 20–30 minutes
Passengers kept waiting in buses, bitten by mosquitoes
No meals, no support, no accountability
Ground staff casually said: “We can’t do anything”

Things got worse when passengers were made to wait inside parked buses for hours, where they were reportedly bitten by mosquitoes and given no proper assistance. There were no meals, no updates from the staff, and no accountability. The ground staff, she said, responded casually and showed no urgency to resolve the matter. The flight, which was scheduled to depart at 9:30 pm, finally took off at 5:37 am the next day.

“From 9:30 PM to 5AM, we were left helpless and exhausted.”

Dirgha even shared a screenshot of the delayed flight details with IndiaToday to support her claims. She added that her friend had to bear unnecessary travel losses and mental exhaustion because of the airline’s poor handling of the situation.

Have a look at her words, shared via her post

The Delhi-based woman made this post on behalf of her friend who she shared is not on social media.  Check it out,

Dirgha Gupta/LinkedIn

Passenger confirms the ordeal, supports friends’ claims

In an interview with IndiaToday, Major Govind Dwivedi, the passenger at the center of the controversy, confirmed the details of the ordeal. While he isn’t active on social media himself, he stated that his friend Dirgha Gupta decided to speak up about the experience on his behalf. He said as we quote,

“Since I’m not active on social media, my friend, Dirgha Gupta, has taken the lead in raising this matter on my behalf. I fully support what she has shared.”

His words backed every claim Dirgha made in her viral LinkedIn post. His confirmation has added more weight to the allegations of mismanagement and poor communication by IndiGo.

IndiGo responds by citing weather for delay, but the woman disagrees and labels the reason as “misleading”

Soon after Dirgha Gupta’s LinkedIn post gained traction, IndiGo responded in the comment section, explaining that the delay was due to a severe thunderstorm and heavy air traffic congestion in Delhi. The airline said both factors were beyond its control and added that weather-related disruptions often cause operational challenges. IndiGo thanked Dirgha for her patience and support, hoping she would understand the situation.

Ms Gupta, thank you for taking the time to speak with us. The delay to your flight was caused by a severe thunderstorm over Delhi last evening, followed by heavy air traffic congestion, both of which, unfortunately, were beyond our control. We hope you understand that weather-related disruptions often lead to operational challenges, and in this instance, they resulted in an additional delay. We truly appreciate your patience and support throughout. ~Team IndiGo

However, Dirgha was not convinced by the explanation. In a follow-up post, she firmly rejected IndiGo’s statement, calling it “misleading.” She pointed out that while the weather may have been a concern earlier in the evening, operations had resumed after 9 PM, and multiple other flights departed without issue. She alleged that passengers were kept on the aircraft for over three hours with little to no communication and were denied the chance to deplane even as late as 4:30 AM.

Thank you for your response, but I disagree with this misleading explanation. While weather was a concern earlier, operations resumed after 9 PM, and multiple flights took off without issue. What followed was clearly a failure in IndiGo’s operations and internal coordination. We were kept on the aircraft for over 3 hours with minimal communication and were denied deplaning at 4:30 AM despite repeated requests. It took over 6 hours for any staff to attend to us.

Dirgha further criticized the airline for hiding behind weather excuses instead of owning up to what she called a clear failure in internal coordination and management. She also warned that she had evidence to support her claims and would escalate the matter to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) if necessary.

Stop hiding behind weather excuses and take responsibility for your management failures. I have evidence to back up my claims, and if this isn’t resolved satisfactorily, I will escalate it to Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) . Passengers deserve transparency, not misleading PR responses.

Her strong response has sparked further conversations about airline accountability and passenger rights. So far, the airline has not made any further comment.

Here is how some netizens have reacted to the post so far

While majority netizens took to the comment section and shared that there was in fact bad weather conditions in Delhi that prompted such delay, a 9 hour delay is a bit too much especially when other flights were allegedly flying during the same time. Some netizen criticised IndiGo’s lack of assistance and poor management.

Check out some of the reactions,

What are your thoughts on this and the recurrent limelight that IndiGo as an airline gets, majoritarily for not the right reasons? Do share via the comments below.