IndiGo bars woman in 'short dress' from boarding flight

A woman passenger was not allowed to board an IndiGo airline flight from Mumbai to New Delhi on Monday morning as staff members found her “inappropriately dressed”.

The IndiGo airlines confirmed the incident and said that the woman was stopped from boarding the flight in accordance with a “specific dress code” that applies to all its employees and family members when they travel using the “staff leisure travel privileges” of the airlines.

Purabi Das, a co-passenger, who was on the same Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Mumbai, said that the woman was scheduled to catch a connecting flight to New Delhi at 6:20 am.

“While I was waiting for my connecting flight, I heard a commotion and found her (the woman passenger) crying. There were three IndiGo employees who had refused to let her board her flight. They said that she was not wearing appropriate clothes,” Das was quoted as saying to Indian Express.

“Nobody raised any objection at the Doha airport. She was not indecently dressed. She was wearing a frock that ended above her knee,” Das added.

Another passenger, Devyadutt Sahu, alleged that the airline staff told him that he would not be allowed to board his flight if he tried to intervene in the matter.

Sahu and Das, who lodged a complaint with the airline’s customer service department, were told that the staffers were following protocol.

In an e-mail reply to The Indian Express, IndiGo wrote that the woman passenger was familiar with the policy. “We regret that an IndiGo passenger (who happens to be an ex IndiGo employee and a family member of a current employee) experienced an untoward behaviour at the Mumbai airport. As per the guidelines outlined, employees and the nominated family members are required to maintain a specific dress code, as and when they fly with the airline under the staff leisure travel privileges. Keeping in mind this policy, the Mumbai ground staff followed the protocol to brief this passenger on the dress code policy,” the IndiGo airlines mentioned.

The airlines also said that its senior managers in Delhi and Mumbai took the woman’s feedback. “This matter will be thoroughly investigated and the staff will be further sensitised via focused learning workshops,” it added.