There is a saying in rural India that goes, "Where there is happiness and peace in a home, pigeons come there." IndiGo's household is now in deep trouble. One after another flight is getting cancelled. Services disrupted. Amidst this, a pigeon suddenly entered an IndiGo flight. So will peace now return to the airline company's "household"? Or is there some other signal hidden in this?
IndiGo is suffering from a staff crisis. As a result, more than four and a half thousand flights have been cancelled across the country in the past week. Passengers have been stuck for hours at airports. Bags and suitcases are scattered everywhere. A section of aviation experts believes such disruption has never been seen before.
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However, services haven't completely stopped. IndiGo is still operating a handful of flights. On Sunday, one such flight was going from Bengaluru to Vadodara. Just before takeoff, a pigeon entered with great commotion. It started flying throughout the entire aircraft. Like a breath of fresh air amidst the chaos.
Seeing a pigeon flapping its wings and flying from one end of the aircraft to the other, passengers immediately started making a commotion. They were extremely happy. Many had been sitting with long faces just moments before. Whether they would get a flight at all was the biggest question. Now with such an incident, their joy knows no bounds. Many capture the moment on camera. Some also recorded videos. One passenger even runs to catch the pigeon.
As soon as that video was posted, it went viral on social media. Most users took the incident with good humour. However, some reminded about IndiGo's current situation and wrote, "IndiGo is really going through very bad times." Another user commented, "The pigeon will probably reach its destination before IndiGo."
Reason behind IndiGo's service disruption
Notably, fatigue due to continuous flying is a very common problem for pilots. As a result, multiple aircraft have met with accidents. Therefore, the central government had introduced new rules increasing pilots' rest time. But the problem is, a section of informed circles believes this rule will work properly only if there are sufficient pilots. So as soon as this rule was implemented, a staff crisis emerged. Services haven't normalised even in the past week.
Even on Monday, nearly 500 flights were cancelled across the country. Passenger suffering is at its peak. The central government has already taken a strong stance against IndiGo. CEO Peter Elbers has been issued a show-cause notice along with instructions to refund ticket fares. Warning IndiGo, Central Minister Ram Mohan Naidu stated that strict measures will be taken. Let the other airline companies learn from IndiGo.
