The most significant allegation in the letter concerns the culture within the airline. It describes a management apathetic to employees and focused solely on profit.
Published Dec 07, 2025 | 7:20 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 07, 2025 | 7:20 PM
IndiGo holds over 60 percent of the domestic market share.
Synopsis: An open letter purportedly written by an anonymous IndiGo employee has alleged that the airline’s ongoing operational meltdown is the result of a culture of greed, arrogance and disdain for employees. The letter accuses the airline’s management of stifling competition, overworking staff for little pay and ignoring repeated warnings from pilots while intimidating them, even as the DGCA reportedly turned a blind eye.
As IndiGo’s operational meltdown shows no sign of easing, an open letter purportedly written by an anonymous employee has alleged that the ongoing debacle is the result of a years-long culture of “greed”, arrogance and an “impossible rostering” system.
The letter has not been verified by South First. It comes after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued a show-cause notice to the carrier’s chief executive, Pieter Elbers, for failing to ensure “timely arrangements for conduct of reliable operations.”
“IndiGo didn’t collapse in a day. This downfall was years in the making. We started off small in 2006. We were proud, genuinely proud, of what we were building. But somewhere along the way, pride turned into arrogance, and growth turned into greed,” the letter alleges.
Indigo CEO Pieter Elbers
“The attitude became: ‘We are too big to fail.’ Remember this phrase, yes we heard this in 2009 when Lehman Brothers and likes failed. And we, the employees, kept warning, sometimes quietly, sometimes desperately. But no one listened.”
On Sunday, 7 December, the airline entered its sixth straight day of disruption following an acute crew shortage after the sudden rollout of revised Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) norms.
Despite the DGCA having rolled back key provisions of the norms that set off the crisis, the airline has said it may take months for operations to return to normal.
With well over 60 percent of the domestic market share, IndiGo is now facing allegations of being part of a “duopoly” alongside Air India.
The purported whistleblower alleges the airline deliberately choked out competition by “hounding” other airlines through the deployment of overcapacity.
“The country kept calling IndiGo the ‘free market success story,’ even as it strangled competition route by route. Does someone remember how they hounded Akasa Air on their launch sectors by deploying over capacity, they did that in part with every other airline. Everyone saw it, passengers, employees, the government. But we all looked away and now we blame this to monopoly,” the letter reads.
But the most significant allegation in the letter concerns the culture within the airline. It describes a management apathetic to employees and focused solely on profit.
“Ground staff, some barely earning ₹16,000-18,000 a month, kept running, literally running, from aircraft to aircraft, sometimes doing the work of three people. Engineers juggling multiple aircraft at once, ever cared to notice aircraft stopping next to the gate and fragile soul running with two wands or TT kinda bat from one bay to another so that you can reach the destination on time on a flight which normally takes 1 hour but sold to you as 1 hour 20 mins flight and then you always arrive early,” the letter reads.
“Pilots raised concerns about fatigue and unsafe duty timings. Instead of being heard, some were called to the head office, intimidated, shouted at, and humiliated. When night duties were doubled, when new rules were implemented, when leaves were taken away, not a single extra rupee was added to compensate for the physical and mental toll.”
Management reportedly responded to employees’ concerns and complaints with threats of job loss, telling them “you’re lucky to have a job” or “beggars can’t be choosers.”
“We watched our colleagues quit or burn out. We watched leadership fly in and out of Europe while we silently prayed for one extra hour of rest,” the letter reads.
The letter also describes other changes in the way the airline operated, from its attitude towards travellers to how it viewed employees.
“You may have noticed in recent years that IndiGo stopped calling you ‘passengers’ and started calling you ‘customers’. This was intentional. We were told: ‘If you call them passengers, they’ll think they own the airline.’ Think about that shift for a second. That mindset,” the letter reads.
“When employees feel exploited, unvalued, and exhausted, how do you think they can give you the service you deserve? It’s not because we don’t care. We care deeply. It’s because we are running on empty.”
The letter also alleges complicity by the DGCA.
“And then there is the regulator. We felt alone. Always alone. When pilots tried to move abroad, licence validations were delayed endlessly. Everyone inside aviation knows this reality. And yes, at one point there were even ‘unofficial prices’ whispered about for faster processing,” it reads.
“When fatigue rules changed in ways that made our schedules even more brutal, there was no representation, no union strong enough to stand up, and no regulator who pushed back.”
