Specially-abled child barred from boarding flight: IndiGo CEO offers regrets, says staff took best possible decision in difficult situation

PTI, May 9, 2022, 2:47 PM IST

New Delhi: IndiGo CEO on Monday offered his regrets on the incident that happened at the Ranchi airport on Saturday wherein a specially-abled child was barred from boarding his flight to Hyderabad as he was in “a state of panic”. “Having reviewed all aspects of this incident, we as an organization are of the view that we made the best possible decision under difficult circumstances,” he said in a statement.

Throughout the check-in and boarding process, our intent, of course, was to carry the family, however, at the boarding area the teenager was visibly in panic, he mentioned.

While providing courteous and compassionate service to our customers is of paramount importance to us, the airport staff, in line with the safety guidelines, were forced to make a difficult decision as to whether this commotion would carry forward aboard the aircraft, stated.

“We recognize too well that parents who dedicate their lives to the caring of physically challenged persons are the true heroes of our society,” he noted.

“We offer our sincere regrets to the affected family for the unfortunate experience and as a small token of our appreciation of their lifelong dedication would like to offer to purchase an electric wheelchair for their son,” he added.

As the boy was prohibited from boarding the airline’s Ranchi-Hyderabad flight on Saturday, his parents — who were with him — also decided to not enter the plane.