The meltdown with IndiGo across multiple airports all over India was a sobering reminder of how delicate the airline business really is. This episode also reminded me of the misery that passengers endure when flying commercial. My rants against that misery, are not new.

But IndiGo’s debacle in 2025 made me list down things that make flying commercial lacking in basic dignity. It’s not a comprehensive list.

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The Indignity in Flying Commercial

Flying on a commercial airliner is akin to surrendering your dignity: its inconvenient, uncomfortable, expensive, and a massive invasion of privacy.

You are giving up on convenience, typically in the name of security:

• You need to take off your belts, shoes and jackets.
• You cannot carry water with you.
• Depending on the country, you cannot carry food with you.
• Depending on your flight, jet lag is real.
• Depending on the country, cutting queues just becomes a cultural artifact.

It is not always comfortable:

• Try sitting in the same spot for more than 30 minutes, without the option of getting up whenever you please.
• Try occupying the same confined space with scores of strangers, many of whom are farting.
• Try eating with a plastic spork, while the passenger in front of you has reclined their seat completely.

It is expensive:

• International flights are expensive.
• Domestic flights seem like an obstacle course where you are trying to constantly avoid in-flight purchases.
• The markups on any item sold in airport terminals is insane.
• Your belongings/bags can go missing.

You are surrendering your privacy:

• You need to submit to an identity check.
• You need to submit to a x-ray scan of your belongings.
• Depending on the country, either someone will fondle your genitals, or do an x-ray scan of your body, in the name of security.
• Strip searches, while rare, are not unheard of.

And yet, we do it. For work. For pleasure. To visit loved ones. Sometime to travel, for the sake of travel. It is an understandable bargain people make.

Air travel – or travel of any kind – offers freedom and agility to a good chunk of humanity. I am sure that many think that the internet makes the world feel smaller and more connected than any other technology. But moving people (and goods!) from one part of the planet to another is what makes the world truly smaller and physically connected. Travel opens up so much opportunity. And the damned commercial airliners know this all too well.

Humanity takes air travel for granted. Not sure when it happened, but it is true. So much of our social existence and physical world is often built around the assumption that traveling hundreds of miles/kilometers is easy, because we will be able to catch a flight to an intended destination at a nearby airport. Airlines exploit that dependence and profiteer from it – my sense is that they do so a little too much.

Commercial flying is perhaps one of the most heavily regulated sectors of the economy there is. Not to mention that capital investments in this space are not for the faint of heart. And because of that, turning a profit is challenging. I deeply appreciate and acknowledge that running a commercial airline business is a multi-disciplinary nightmare, where too many things can go wrong. So in that environment, there is tremendous pressure to gain every economic and operational efficiency anywhere and everywhere. It only makes sense to profit in any way possible. But that pressure to squeeze out a profit can get so high that cutting corners only becomes natural.

Airliners profit at the expense of passengers’ dignity – they need to remember that, and remind themselves of that constantly. Passengers already factor in a lot of indignity when they travel. But when certain lines get crossed, passengers will have very limited tolerance. And the bar for airlines to clear is very low: the flight needs to take off, land, and remain intact.

Remarkably, airlines are failing at that low bar. In India alone, planes have not remained in tact, and flights are not taking off. So, it is not surprising that passengers are pushing back.

IndiGo’s operational turmoil entered its third day on Friday, triggering scenes of anger and confusion across major airports as mass delays and cancellations continued. — India Today, Dec 5, 2025

The disruption to IndiGo services caused significant distress, leading to long queues at airports as many passengers remained stranded for 12 to 14 hours without confirmed flight statuses. Passengers shared their harrowing experiences across social media platforms, with a majority stating that IndiGo’s customer service response during the crisis was extremely inadequate and unresponsive. — NDTV, Dec 4, 2025

The public, grassroots pushback is translating into government action. The government is obviously involved in investigating the Air India flight crash that took off from Ahmedabad. But with the IndiGo debacle, reports suggest that the Prime Minister is upset. The DGCA is looking at intervening, starting with requiring IndiGo to reduce 5% of it scheduled flights.

In a fresh action against the IndiGo amid ongoing crisis, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has instructed the airline to cut down its flight operation by 5% to ease passengers’ trouble, reports said. This comes as the past few days witnessed perhaps one of the worst aviation crisis in the country with IndiGo cancelling thousands of flights, leaving a large number of passengers stranded across the country.

The irony here is that in the quest of profits by cutting corners, airliners have managed invite more government regulations. Those government regulations are going to eat into those profits.

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Life is for Living

Instead of rushing through life, I find myself standing still more than I used to. It has allowed me to notice life around me. And when not intensely private, I capture it with my camera.

Caught this view of the horizon while waiting for my turn to take a leak at 40,000 ft.