Passengers protest at Mumbai airport as IndiGo flight to Istanbul gets delayed by 16 hours

Long delay of an Istanbul-bound IndiGo flight from Mumbai led to passengers to vent their anger on social media on Saturday, prompting the airliner to issue a statement later saying their team was "working hard" to provide support to the affected customers.

IndiGo's Mumbai-Istanbul flight of December 28 - 6E17 - scheduled to depart at 6.55 am, had to be cancelled due to a technical glitch. The flight eventually took off at 11 pm.

Passengers vent anger on social media

Passengers claimed no food or even water was served, and no airline representative was willing to listen to their grievances during the waiting hours.

"Mumbai to Istanbul journey suspended after 10 hours waiting by passengers. Information that there are around 100 passengers in this journey and the number of students is large. Kids are crying at the airport, no resolution from authorities," said a passenger in his post on X, also tagging Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol.

"There are 500 passengers who have been scammed by continuous delays and eventual cancellation. All passengers have not been served any food or water. There is no representative from indigo willing to listen to grievances," said another passenger in a post.

Sources cited in an NDTV report said the flight was delayed at least thrice.

Several passengers, comprising mostly students, staged a protest at the airport, demanding that the airline either issue a refund or arrange an alternate flight, the sources cited in the report said.

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"My brother has been stuck at the Mumbai International Airport for more than 12 hours due to extremely unprofessional behavior by @IndiGo6E and their staff. He had a flight to Istanbul which 1st got delayed, then he was made to board and de-board again twice!!" a post on X read, adding that the “staff is extremely rude and refuse to answer any questions about rescheduling and refund.”

IndiGo, however, said its teams were "working hard" to provide support to the affected customers, keeping them informed and arranging accommodation, meal vouchers and full refunds.

The airliner later said in a statement that the alternative aircraft will depart for Istanbul at 11 pm. "We regret that our flight 6E17, originally scheduled to operate from Mumbai to Istanbul, faced a delay due to technical issues. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts to rectify the issue and dispatch it to the destination, we eventually had to cancel the flight," IndiGo said in a statement.