Sindhu says IndiGo staff was rude, airline backs him

Mumbai: Badminton star and Olympic silver medallist P.V. Sindhu on Saturday accused a member of IndiGo airline’s ground staff at Mumbai of misbehaving with her. The airline, however, refuted the charges and said Ms Sindhu had carried oversized baggage inside the cabin and therefore it was shifted to cargo as per airline policy. The airline in a statement denied that any of its staff misbehaved with Ms Sindhu.

According to sources, Ms Sindhu had an advertisement shoot in Mumbai and she was also on her way to Nagpur for the 82nd Senior Nationals Badminton Championship, which is being held there.

Ms Sindhu was upset with IndiGo airline’s ground staff skipper Mr Ajeetesh, whom she accused of behaving badly with her as well as with air hostess Ms Ashima. The badminton star around 12 pm tweeted from her personal account saying, “Sorry to say. I had a very bad experience when I was flying by 6E 608 flight to bombay on 4th November the ground staff by name Mr Ajeetesh… behaved very badly and rudely with me. When the air hostess Ms Ashima tried to advise him to behave properly with the passenger (me), to my surprise he behaved very rudely with her. If these type of people work for a reputed airline like Indigo they will spoil their reputation.”

However, IndiGo denied the allegation. “Ms P.V. Sindhu boarded flight 6E608 Hyderabad-Mumbai… carrying oversized baggage which was not fitting into the overhead bin. Ms Sindhu was informed that it will be moved to cargo hold of the aircraft. This is the same policy we follow for all customers. Oversized baggage inside the cabin inconveniences other customers and can also be a safety hazard if it cannot be secured properly in the cabin,” said Ajay Jasra, director, corporate communications, IndiGo.

IndiGo officials denied their staff members had been rude to Ms Sindhu. “During the entire conversation, the member of the IndiGo ground operations remained calm. After several requests to her manager, they finally consented to the removal of the bag from the cabin. We then placed the oversized baggage in the cargo hold and was handed over to Ms Sindhu on arrival. We are extremely proud of Ms Sindhu’s sporting achievements and are grateful for the laurels she has won for our country. However, safety of our operations is paramount to IndiGo. We hope that Ms Sindhu will appreciate that our colleague was only carrying out his duty in the best interest of a safe and reliable operation.”

However, speaking to a news channel, Ms Sindhu’s father P.V. Ramana said that the airline’s statement failed to address the issue of misbehaviour of one of its staff members. He said Ms Sindhu was not only upset because the staff member in question had misbehaved with her, but had misbehaved even with an air hostess of the airline. Mr Ramana further said that his daughter never objected to her baggage being shifted to cargo even though she has carried the same kit in cabin many a time.