It’s not unusual to see people miss flights, and/or to see them lose their patience with frontline airline employees. Here’s a unique twist on that, as a former senior airline executive has gone on a bit of a rant, after IndiGo left him behind during a rolling delay. Are his complaints warranted, or should he just have been at the gate earlier?
In this post:
Ex-AirAsia India CFO furious after missing IndiGo flight
Vijay Gopalan is the former CFO of AirAsia India, and on February 5, 2026, he was scheduled to fly on IndiGo flight 6E7268, from Tiruchirappalli (TRZ) to Chennai (MAA).
He checked in online for the short 183-mile flight, and arrived at the airport at around 1PM, for a scheduled 2:55PM departure. He went straight to the airport lounge (which he presumably had access to through Priority Pass or some other program), and spent time there getting caught up on work.
On the monitor in the lounge, he noticed that the flight was delayed until 3:10PM, then until 3:15PM, and then until 3:25PM, so obviously there was a bit of a rolling delay.
The monitor in the lounge was constantly being updated, and it showed “security” as the status for the flight, as opposed to “check-in,” “departing,” or “boarding.” So he reasonably inferred that the flight wasn’t yet boarding, and stayed in the lounge working, especially since the gate was just a very short distance away.
At 3:05PM, he received a phone call from an IndiGo staff member, informing him that the flight had left, and asking where he was. To be clear, they weren’t telling him they were about to close the door and that he should hurry, but instead, that the flight already left.
He explained his situation, and she said that they had announced boarding multiple times, and even paged him. But of course since he was in the lounge, he couldn’t hear it. When he arrived at the gate, one of the gate agents accused him of wanting to “eat good food” in the lounge, and that doesn’t justify delaying a flight for everyone else.
He stated that the ground staff were super rude and wouldn’t take any accountability for the flight status issues, instead explaining he should’ve been at the gate 40 minutes before departure, and that gates close 20 minutes before departure.
You can find the gate confrontation below.
Then you can find his detailed explanation of what happened below.
My take on this IndiGo missed flight confrontation
This is a tricky situation on several levels. Technically speaking, IndiGo’s website states the following regarding when passengers have to be at the gate:
Boarding gates close 25 minutes to departure at all airports. Passengers must be present at the boarding gate no later than the time specified by IndiGo when they check in or any subsequent announcements made at the airport.
If this flight had been on-time, then I’d largely side with the airline. The issue here is that this was obviously a rolling delay, and this passenger was actually applying logic to the situation. If you have a rolling delay, if it’s 20 minutes before the posted departure time, and if the departure monitor doesn’t show a flight as boarding, it’s not unreasonable to assume that you might still have some time.
I do find it strange how the ground staff call him after the flight has left, to inform him that it has departed without him. You’d think that if you’re going to make a courtesy call, you’d do so before the door closes, when there’s actually a benefit to it, rather than after.
The ground staff definitely showed at an attitude, like suggesting he wanted to “eat good food” rather than be at the gate. At the same time, frontline staff are hardly empowered with most operational decisions, especially at an airline the scale of IndiGo which doesn’t exactly run a high-touch operation. I also imagine that a lot of frontline IndiGo staff are a bit scarred after the massive meltdown weeks ago, where passengers misdirected their frustration at them.
I’d say that the former AirAsia CFO was actually pretty measured in how he interacted with he employees, and if you’re applying logic to the situation, I’d say he’s correct, even if the airline technically wasn’t violating any of its own policies by closing the door 20+ minutes ahead of the scheduled departure time. This just seems like a really poorly managed rolling delay.
Bottom line
AirAsia India’s former CFO was booked on an IndiGo flight with a rolling delay. He stayed in the lounge, given that the departure time kept getting pushed back, and the monitor didn’t show the flight as boarding. However, he received a phone call 20 minutes before departure, informing him that he had missed the flight, and scolding him for being in the lounge.
This is a situation where the staff may have technically been following the carrier’s published policies, but the customer service and delay notifications definitely left a lot to be desired.
What do you make of this IndiGo missed flight fiasco?
Never heard of her!!
When he was an airline executive, how often did similar situation occur to pax flying his carrier?
It's a crappy situation, but one we hear every so often about airlines all around the world.
What's this guy going to do when it happens to a passenger at the next carrier he works for?
This has happened to me twice in Singapore with Scoot & Singapore Airlines - who are absolutely obsessed with leaving early. They do not follow what’s printed or displayed, and they would then insist that there’s nothing they can do about it despite having a few extra minutes to spare from the actual gate closing time (and much more from the scheduled departure time). As much as everyone likes to tout the great service from...
This has happened to me twice in Singapore with Scoot & Singapore Airlines - who are absolutely obsessed with leaving early. They do not follow what’s printed or displayed, and they would then insist that there’s nothing they can do about it despite having a few extra minutes to spare from the actual gate closing time (and much more from the scheduled departure time). As much as everyone likes to tout the great service from Singapore Airlines, the ground staff and corporate staff are absolute dogshit.
I would have lost it if someone told me I was in Priority Pass lounge to "eat good food" :-)
Seriously though, if he got a call at 3:05 (and presumably he was not at the gate) for 3:25 departure - he was pushing it.
Agree with others saying that the boards need to be accurate. One of my daughter's earliest memories is of me carrying her, aged nearly 2, running through Chennai airport after our delayed Indigo flight also didn't show as boarding, but we got a phone call from the gate agent saying they were just closing the doors. I grabbed her, slice of pizza still in hand, and we made a dash to the gate. She thought...
Agree with others saying that the boards need to be accurate. One of my daughter's earliest memories is of me carrying her, aged nearly 2, running through Chennai airport after our delayed Indigo flight also didn't show as boarding, but we got a phone call from the gate agent saying they were just closing the doors. I grabbed her, slice of pizza still in hand, and we made a dash to the gate. She thought it was absolutely hilarious and laughed all the way to the plane. I was somewhat less calm about the situation!
Even India has an air passenger rights legislation that includes refunds or rebooking plus compensation up to ₹10,000 (about $110). Indian consumers are better protected than Americans. You'd think we'd do something about that... eventually... *cough*
I've seen flights get delayed several hours, only to shortly after be un-delayed and show an on-time departure. I wonder how much grace is given to passengers who exited the airport after seeing the initial delayed departure time
This just in: man misses flight and has a whinge.
Any seasoned traveller knows that relying on departure screens alone is risky business, and that being at the gate 20 minutes prior to departure (especially as part of a brief delay) is even riskier. He gambled and lost. Hope the extra time in the lounge was worth it.
This is not a story.
not being at the gate**
Departure screens should be a source of information travelers can rely on. We shouldn't just accept departure screens not showing correct information
"Should be."
And that's the intention. Humans also have brains. Use them. Talk about an addiction to screens.
This exact situation happened to me in Sao Paolo about 8 years ago. LATAM. I was in LATAM's own lounge. A rolling delay. After a while I decided to check the gate just because I had low confidence in LATAM's communication capabilities. Sure enough gate was closed. Even worse this was the second leg of a four leg ticket so I stood to lose my return to Europe. The gate agents acknowledged what had happened...
This exact situation happened to me in Sao Paolo about 8 years ago. LATAM. I was in LATAM's own lounge. A rolling delay. After a while I decided to check the gate just because I had low confidence in LATAM's communication capabilities. Sure enough gate was closed. Even worse this was the second leg of a four leg ticket so I stood to lose my return to Europe. The gate agents acknowledged what had happened and also there happened to be a pilot and his fiance who wanted to catch the flight so they sent a minivan to pick us up and take us to the flight. It was still at a remote stand and the door closed immediately after the three of us boarded.
It turned out fine, but it pissed me off that the screen in the lounge could not be trusted.
The smart money is on Dave Stafford to break the ice with the first racist comment in this section.
You had me a break the ICE...