WHEN SAYING SORRY IS LESS THAN ADEQUATE

More than issuing apologies, India's biggest airline must compensate those who faced cancellations and reward their front-office workers who fielded the flak. Otherwise, it may lose its hard-earned brand mojo

- HARISH BIJOOR

THE week gone by has been one of rage. The months of November and December 2025 will be remembered by IndiGo Airlines and most certainly by those who used it for travel as months of trauma. And drama.

IndiGo cancelled as many as 2,000plus flights (the number climbing by the hour even as you read this) with a decision that left hundreds of thousands of passengers in the lurch. It began with delays announced in installments of 30 minutes, in true-blue heritage airline style, and then most ended with cancellations. These many cancelled flights meant cancelled plans and loss of time, energy, carefully-laid plans and money, as far as passengers were concerned. Some missed weddings, some missed funerals, and some missed very important meetings.

In short, large-scale cancellations by India's largest airline meant putting thousands of lives and plans in disarray. As these many people grappled with their personal losses, the airline went contrite. It took full-page advertisements in newspapers to say sorry. These apology ads, coming in the wake of a genre of faux apology ads taken by many a brand across the world, sadly did not mean much to those affected.

India went angry. There were a set of people who went ballistic on the airline and its management systems. Television channels and newspapers were filled with rage. Social media went a step further with memes of every kind that decimated a brand built assiduously, one well-managed flight at a time, over the past 19 years. The now-common device of rage-bait was used and social media algorithms went berserk upping the ante of this movement. Hashtags of every kind went viral, including one that said #MakeThemPay. All of India got involved in this debate of the airline traveller who lost his travel. Everyone with a smartphone pitched into the debate.