Passengers don’t have a nice flight with 4-hour delay

MUMBAI: Passengers on an IndiGo flight to Goa had a harrowing time on Thursday after it was delayed by four hours. They alleged that airline staff were not courteous, and an airline security personnel threatened to offload the complainants.

Flight 6E-711 was to depart at 1.45pm but even three hours after that, passengers waited in the terminal building. “Initially, they told us the aircraft to operate the flight had a delayed arrival from Delhi. Then they said they were waiting for connecting passengers from

Udaipur

,” said

Sandhya Srinivasan

, a passenger. After a three-hour wait, passengers boarded, only to wait another hour in the aircraft.

Vinod Shetty, another passenger, said, “When a passenger questioned the cabin crew about the delay, and why they were being made to wait for 20 passengers from Udaipur, an IndiGo security personnel asked for his boarding pass and threatened to offload him.” The passengers were aggrieved over the airline’s handling of the delay, he added. “They showed no courtesy. They did not even offer us something to drink. Only passengers who went to their counter in the building and asked for food, were given a box of dal khichdi and a bottle of water,” he said, adding that there were senior citizens.

An IndiGo spokesperson said the flight was hit by “consequential delay”. “Flight 6E-713 from Kolkata to Varanasi was delayed due to low visibility at Varanasi airport. Passengers booked on 6E-711 were informed by staff of this consequential delay. IndiGo staff consistently monitored weather conditions at Varanasi. As conditions continued to be the same, the schedule was further revised. At the same time, Goa airport runway was closed from 4.30pm to 5.30pm. This caused further delay. Flight 6E-711 departed from Mumbai airport at 5.34pm and arrived at Goa airport 6.43pm with 175 passengers on board,” the IndiGo official said.


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