The passenger was prevented from boarding a bus, manhandled and thrown to the ground by airline staff.
Indian airline IndiGo Airlines has issued a public apology to a passenger who was manhandled by staff after a flight landed at Delhi Airport last month.
According to Times of India, passenger Rajiv Katiyal got into an argument with staff after he disembarked a flight from Chennai to Dubai on October 15.
Video footage of the argument subsequently surfaced which shows Katiyal being prevented from boarding a passenger bus and then being thrown to the ground whilst arguing with two IndiGo staff members.
Restrained and throttled. No apology given or any action taken, this could be you. #TarmacTerrorTape pic.twitter.com/OUser3ORyQ
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) November 7, 2017
The Times of India report that the person responsible for recording footage of the argument, Montu Kalra, who was also an IndiGo employee, was sacked.
After the footage went public on Tuesday, IndiGo issued a statement apologising to Katiyal and confirming that the employee believed to be the main culprit in the incident has had his employment terminated.
The fate of Montu Kalra remains unclear.
We truly apologise to Mr. Rajiv Katiyal for this incident & assure him that the employee has been terminated. pic.twitter.com/9xZcSftgit
— IndiGo (@IndiGo6E) November 7, 2017
Aditya Ghosh, president of the airline, issued an additional statement to acknowledge that staff members were “completely out of line” and to offer his personal and sincere apologies to Rajiv Katiyal.
We condemn the actions of our staff & have taken stern action. We truly apologize for this. Such behavior is unacceptable – @AdityaGhosh6E pic.twitter.com/lGNT8An7rQ
— IndiGo (@IndiGo6E) November 7, 2017
“Treating our customers with respect is core to what we do,” Ghosh’s apology read.
“Every day we take tens of thousands of happy customers to where they need to get to. It is for this reason that customers choose IndiGo more number of times than any other airline in the country. An incident happened in Delhi airport which is entirely the opposite of this and against what we stand for at IndiGo. The video of this incident came to our attention and we took action.
“Even while the investigation was going on we immediately suspended the involved employees. I personally spoke to the customer and apologised to him the very same day. Whatever may have been the provocation, our staff were completely out of line and didn’t follow laid down procedures…. Under the code of conduct violation, this incident was investigated by the designated committee and stern action was taken against the staff who was he main culprit by immediately terminating his employment.
“He was the one found instigating and aggravating the situation. He is the exact opposite of what IndiGo’s customer service aims to be.”
