Sindhu slams IndiGo staff for rude behaviour, airline rejects claim

New Delhi, Badminton star PV Sindhu accused an IndiGo airline ground staff of misbehaving with her while travelling from Hyderabad to Mumbai, even as the airline rejected the shuttler’s allegations.
World No. 2 Sindhu claimed that the staff behaved rudely with her and an airhostess intervened to advise him against doing so.
“Ground staff (skipper) Ajeetesh behaved very badly and rudely with me. When the air hostess Ashima tried to advise him to behave properly he behaved very rudely with her also. If these type of people work for a reputed airline like IndiGo, it will spoil its reputation,” Sindhu wrote on her Twitter page.
The airline issued a prompt response and backed its employee for “keeping calm”, saying that the employee was only doing his job. “PV Sindhu boarded flight 6E608 Hyderabad-Mumbai carrying oversized baggage which was not fitting into the overhead bin. Sindhu was informed that it will be moved to cargo hold of the aircraft. This is the policy we follow for all the customers,” the airline said in a statement. The ground staff apparently objected to her carrying the kit bag which had her racquets in it. She normally carries them as hand luggage. The airline stated, “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 remove the bag from the cabin. We then placed the over-sized baggage in the cargo hold and it was handed over to Sindhu on arrival.”
PV Ramana, Sindhu’s father, who was also travelling with her, said the ground staff was at fault. “The ground staff misbehaved with Sindhu while handling her kit bag. Sindhu had requested him to handle it with care as there were racquets in it. But the person behaved rudely. The air hostess tried to interfere but he was rude to her also. One should not behave with a lady like that. She was hurt,” he said.
The airline further said, “We hope that Sindhu will appreciate that our colleague was only carrying out his duty in the best interest of a safe and reliable operation.”