AirHelp, a global passenger rights agency, has ranked IndiGo 103rd out of 109 airlines globally, citing low claims processing performance
The final score given to IndiGO is 4.80 out of 10. Representation pic
Indigo has dismissed the survey findings released by AirHelp, the global market leader in passenger rights and flight compensation, questioning the survey’s credibility. AirHelp ranked IndiGo, India’s largest airline, among the world’s worst, placing it at 103 out of 109 on its global rankings. In response, IndiGo highlighted data from India’s aviation regulator, DGCA, emphasising its consistent performance. The airline stated, “India’s aviation regulator DGCA publishes monthly data on airline punctuality and customer complaints. IndiGo has consistently scored high on punctuality and maintains the lowest customer complaint ratio for an airline of its size and scale. As India’s most preferred airline, IndiGo refutes the survey’s findings.”
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AirHelp defended its rankings, explaining the parameters used to evaluate airlines. A spokesperson told mid-day that the rankings are based on three factors: On-Time Performance (OTP), Passenger Satisfaction, and Claim Resolution.
“We combine a lot of information—from the factual data on airlines’ on-time performance to customers’ opinions based on their own flying experience. And we’re in a unique position to factor in how airlines behave when flights don't go to plan. We aim to rank the most popular and best-known airlines. From a list of over 800 airlines around the world, we selected the biggest in terms of passenger numbers and popularity. Some airlines are excluded where we are unable to get data.”
On Time Performance (OTP)
“The agency maintains a database of flight data that ranks among the most reliable and accurate in the world. We used our database to find statistics for every flight between January 1 and October 31, 2024, which allowed us to calculate how many of any given airline’s flights were on time,” a spokesperson explained.
When asked about what counts as 'being on time', the spokesperson added, “We count any flight that arrived within 15 minutes of its published arrival time as an on-time flight. We calculated how many flights were on time and expressed this number as a percentage. The higher the score, the higher the percentage of flights arriving on time.”
Passenger satisfaction
A senior data analyst from the survey agency told mid-day, “We ran hundreds of surveys where we asked air travellers from more than 54 countries for their opinions — and we collected almost 20,000 rankings of airlines. We asked passengers to rate the airlines they had most recently flown with on five factors which are, cabin crew, aircraft comfort, aircraft cleanliness, food offering and entertainment onboard.”
The data analyst added, “Passengers rated each factor on a scale from ‘very good’ to ‘very bad’. We gave each rating a numeric value and averaged these ratings to arrive at a final score.”
Claims processing
The agency spokesperson said, “We believe that an airline should be assessed not just by how they treat their passengers during business as usual, but also by the consideration they show customers when things go wrong. To arrive at a score, we break their performance down into multiple factors which are—how likely an airline is to pay out compensation for a valid claim. Whether claims are resolved quickly, or require additional effort.”
In the survey report, IndiGO was found to have been given the following numbers for the three categories—on-time performance at 6.6 out of 10; customer opinion was given 7.5 out of 10 and claims processing was given 0.3 out of 10.
When mid-day accessed the survey, it was found that none of the Indian airlines were in the top 50.
54
No. of countries the survey was conducted
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