On Thursday morning, about 15 passengers of national carrier Air India, missed their morning flight to Mumbai from Delhi despite having boarding passes.
On Thursday morning, about 15 passengers of national carrier Air India, missed their morning flight to Mumbai from Delhi despite having boarding passes. According to the passengers, the airline allegedly kept them waiting at the check in counters at Delhi while the boarding process was underway and were later not allowed to board the flight. After three hours, these passengers were accommodated in another flight to Mumbai.
According to the sources, flight AI 657 was scheduled to depart from Delhi around 7 am on Thursday. Even though the passengers reached the airport on time for boarding, but the airline kept them waiting at the check in counters and issued them the boarding pass a few minutes before the flight was supposed to depart. Immediately after getting the pass when passengers reached the boarding gates they were told by the airline’s ground staff that the boarding process was closed. This resulted in all the 15 passengers to miss their flight. Later, around 10 am the passengers were accommodated in another Mumbai bound flight.
When The Asian Age contacted the Air India’s official spokesperson, they said that the incident happened due to a delay in arrival of the scheduled aircraft from Hong Kong. “In the first leg, the aircraft was supposed to reach Delhi from Hong Kong and then fly to Mumbai at 7 am. But due to fog in Hong Kong, it could not reach Delhi on time. Anticipating this we took measures to accommodate the Mumbai-bound passengers from Delhi in other AI flights.” Commenting on the passengers who missed their flight, the spokesperson said, “The passengers were given boarding passes as they arrived as a result the ones that arrived early were issued boarding passes for the accommodating flight which was supposed to leave before 7 am and that’s how the remaining 15 passengers could not board the flight. But we managed to accommodate them in different flights to Mumbai, later during the day.”
A businessman Vivek Shukla, who was booked for this Air India flight AI657 told this newspaper, “My business meet in Mumbai got affected due to the flight’s delay, and the airline authorities did not inform us about the aircraft’s status.” According to Mr Shukla, he reached the airport at about 5 am for the 7 am flight. “I and a few other passengers reached airport on time but the airline officials kept us waiting at the check in counters, saying that arrival aircraft is delayed. Suddenly, around 6.50 am they issued us a boarding pass, for the 7 am flight, so all of us reached to the departure gate but by then it was closed and we had to miss our flight,” he said.
