India’s ace badminton player and Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu on Saturday took to Twitter to slam the IndiGo airlines, alleging that that she was ill-treated by the airline staff during her flight to Mumbai.
“Sorry to say ..i had a very bad experience when i was flying by 6E 608 flight to bombay on 4th nov the ground staff by name Mr ajeetesh,” Sindhu tweeted, also using an angry emoji.
In her second tweet, Sindhu claimed that one of the ground staffs named ‘Ajeetesh’ behaved very badly with her.
“Ground staff (skipper) 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) but to my surprise he behaved very rudely with her. If this type of people work for a rupted (reputed) airline like indigo they will spoil their reputation @IndiGo6E,” she tweeted.
In another tweet, Sindhu urged the airline to speak to the air hostess, Ashima and get the details about the incident. “Please speak to Ms Ashima she wil explain you in detail.????????,” she added.
According to reports, the ground staff apparently objected to her carrying her kit-bag which had her badminton racquets inside it.
The staffer told her to get rid of them very rudely as they can’t be in flight.
Following the complaint by Sindhu, the airlines replied on Twitter, saying that they would like to get in touch with her regarding the issue. “Hi! We'd like to speak with you. Kindly confirm if we may contact you on your registered number with us and share a convenient time to speak via DM so we may contact you,” it tweeted.
However, the airline later denied the claim, saying that Sindhu's baggage was oversized and the staff had informed her that it will be moved to cargo hold of the aircraft.
It further added that during the entire conversation, the ground staff remained quiet.
"Ms P V Sindhu boarded flight 6E608 Hyderabad - Mumbai last 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. 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 over-sized 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," said Ajay Jasra, Director Corporate, IndiGo Airlines.
PV Sindhu is set to take part in seven-day Senior National Badminton Championship which begins on Thursday. Apart from Sindhu, all the top Indian shuttlers including Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal will also take part in the tournament.
