Unclaimed, untagged and wrongly tagged bags belonging to IndiGo passengers continue to pile up across airports — the biggest lingering fallout of the airline’s crisis.
Passengers whose bags still have tags are getting them delivered home, but those with missing tags are being asked to visit the airport, prove ownership and collect their belongings.
On Friday, the confusion played out at the Calcutta airport when two different luggage tags on a single carton delayed its handover to the rightful claimant by nearly four hours at IndiGo’s counter.
Airport and airline officials said the incident was symptomatic of the nationwide chaos: scores of IndiGo passengers are still waiting for misplaced bags even though flight operations have largely stabilised.
While flights have returned to normal schedules, the backlog of unclaimed baggage persists, with many bags arriving without tags or bearing wrong ones as a consequence of last week’s large-scale disruption.
On Friday, Rahim Shaikh travelled from Kandi in Murshidabad to the Calcutta airport with a friend, reaching around 11.30am after a bus ride to Esplanade and a Metro trip. He had come to collect a carton belonging to his uncle, who had flown from Jeddah to Calcutta via Mumbai on December 3. Rahim finally received the carton around 3.30pm.
Airline staff attributed the delay to a tagging mix-up. The carton bore two labels: one linked to Rahim’s uncle’s PNR, and the other — a rush tag — linked to a different passenger. A rush tag is a special label used to fast-track bags that miss their original flight or are separated from passengers. Its presence created confusion about the carton’s ownership.
“My uncle works in Saudi Arabia and came home after a long time,” Rahim said. “He reached on December 3 but couldn’t find his bag. He lodged a report, but there was no communication from IndiGo. So he sent me today.”
The carton contained items worth over ₹3 lakh, including six mobile phones his uncle had brought for younger family members and other gifts.
Since Rahim was not the original claimant, the conflicting tags made the verification process even more stringent. “I was carrying a copy of his passport and an authorisation letter,” Rahim said. “Still, I had to make a video call to my uncle so he could speak to the staff. He had given me a list of the contents. They handed the bag over only after checking everything and concluding the rush tag had been attached by mistake.”
The carton, wrapped in a plastic roll, had been stored at a counter near Gate 3C on the departure level of the airport. It was brought out, unwrapped, and its contents cross-checked in front of IndiGo personnel.
A visit to the airport on Friday showed that several unclaimed bags remained piled up, many without tags, making it harder to match them with their owners. “Some bags do not have tags. Some have wrong ones. That is making it more difficult to trace the actual owner,” an airport official said.
An IndiGo source said that bags were still arriving from other cities. “We are sending out the ones with proper tags to Calcutta and the districts, and informing customers about dispatch. But many passengers whose bags have missing tags still haven’t received theirs. We are calling them to the airport and asking for proof of ownership before handing anything over.”
IndiGo on Friday announced that its board had “approved the appointment of Chief Aviation Advisors LLC, led by Captain John Illson, veteran aviation expert, to conduct an independent expert review and assessment of the recent operational disruption and the contributing factors.”
A spokesperson said: “The objective is to conduct an independent root-cause analysis of the operational disruption, besides improvement opportunities. This decision follows the recommendation of the crisis management group constituted by the IndiGo board.”
The carrier said it was “demonstrating continuous operational normalisation and stability since the last four days.”
“IndiGo is set to operate over 2,000 flights today as per its revised scaled-down schedule. All 138 operational destinations are connected, and our on-time performance has been consistently normal. Yesterday, we operated over 1,950 flights with just four cancellations due to unfavourable weather, and all affected customers were informed to avoid inconvenience,” the spokesperson said.