Air India bars 19 students from US flight

An e-mail sent by the Air India sales team asking its staff not to issue air tickets to students travelling to San Francisco with admissions to Silicon Valley University, San Jose, and North Western Polytechnic University, Fremont, both in California, resulted in the airline stopping 19 students at the Shamshabad airport on Saturday night.

The e-mail stated: “The students travelling to SFO with student visa and i20 from the following universities are not to be issued tickets as the two universities are blacklisted. Please inform all your staff and care to be taken while issuing the tickets.”

Students who booked their tickets with Air India were in for a rude shock when they were stopped by the airline staff at the airport. Students alleged that their colleagues taking other airlines had been allowed to travel.

Students got into arguments with the airline staff, asking how they could be stopped when they had been issued visas.

They also questioned the authenticity of the e-mail, saying that it did not have an authorised signatory or stamp of the United States government, stating that the two universities were blacklisted.

Air India staff replied that they had received the e-mail from the airline’s San Francisco office and they were just implementing orders.

“We inquired with officials of both these universities and our friends who are studying there. They told us that there was no problem with these universities and not to believe in such rumours,” said Deepak, a resident of Habsiguda.

Both universities posted a clarification on their official websites stating that they were not blacklisted by the US government and that stricter security measures had been imposed by US Customs and border security personnel on account of the recent Paris attack terror threats.

Air India officials said the airline management would refund the tickets.