‘This downfall was years in making’: Anonymous IndiGo employee pens open letter

New Delhi: A potent cocktail of alleged internal mismanagement, a culture where "positions prevailed over talent," and a shift from "pride to arrogance, growth to greed" has purportedly brought India's dominant domestic carrier, IndiGo, to its current operational mess. These explosive claims come from an open letter, allegedly penned by a disgruntled employee, circulating amidst a crisis that has seen the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issue stern show-cause notices to the airline's top brass.

The anonymous letter, whose authenticity remains unverified, points a finger directly at key figures within IndiGo's leadership. Named as central to the unfolding "mess" are Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Pieter Elbers, Chief Operating Officer (COO) and accountable manager Isidro Porquerus, Senior Vice-President for Operations Command Centre Jason Herter, and Senior VP for Flight Operations Ashim Mittra, among others.

This internal outcry coincides with a severe regulatory crackdown. On Saturday, the DGCA served show cause notices to both Elbers and Porquerus, lambasting the airline for "large-scale operational failures" that "indicate significant lapses in planning, oversight and resource management."

The DGCA pulled no punches, explicitly telling Elbers, "...as the CEO, you are responsible for ensuring effective management of the airline but you have failed in your duty to ensure timely arrangements for conduct of reliable operations and the availability of requisite facilities to the passengers."

The immediate trigger for the DGCA's intervention was the airline's inability to adequately provision for the smooth implementation of its approved Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) scheme, leading to widespread flight disruptions. Originally given a tight 24-hour deadline to respond, IndiGo has since secured a one-time extension from the DGCA, pushing its submission deadline to 6 PM on Monday.

The anonymous employee's open letter, addressed to both fellow citizens and the IndiGo management, asserts that the airline's internal woes are no longer confined within corporate walls but now "affect millions of people in this country." It vividly describes a personal journey of enduring "every shift, every sleepless night, every humiliation, every squeezed pay cheque, and every impossible roster," underscoring the deep-seated frustration.

The letter claims that IndiGo's current predicament was not a sudden collapse but a "downfall... years in the making," something "We All Saw It Coming." It reminisces about the early days in 2006 when employees felt a genuine sense of pride in building the airline. However, this sentiment allegedly eroded over time, morphing into an "arrogance" and "greed," fostering an attitude of "We are too big to fail." Moreover, the letter alleges that employee warnings, sometimes quiet and sometimes desperate, consistently fell on deaf ears.

Beyond internal dynamics, the letter also touches upon IndiGo's broader market conduct. While the nation hailed IndiGo as a "free market success story," the anonymous author contends that the airline systematically "strangled competition route by route." A specific allegation details how IndiGo supposedly "hounded Akasa Air" upon its launch by deploying "over capacity," a tactic claimed to have been used against "every other airline."

The core of the alleged "rot," according to the employee, began when "titles became more important than talent." The letter vividly paints a picture where individuals "who couldn’t even draft a proper email were becoming VPs—because being a VP meant access to ESOPs and power." This newfound power, the letter claims, was then "justified by squeezing the employees under you," completing a vicious cycle of internal decay.