In the second such incident in a month, a flight took off leaving a section of its passengers stranded at the airport on Wednesday. The incident took place at Amritsar airport when the Amritsar-Singapore flight operated by Scoot left behind 32 passengers following a change in schedule.
A miscommunication between the travel agent and the passengers is said to be the reason behind the confusion.
Taking note of the incident, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered a probe in the matter. The Scoot Airlines issued an apology on Thursday.
The Scoot incident comes just 10 days after a Go First flight departed from Bengaluru for Delhi leaving behind 55 of its passengers onboard the airline’s bus on the tarmac.
According to Scoot, bad weather affected departure time, and the flight was rescheduled to leave Amritsar at 3:45 pm instead of the original departure time of 7.55 pm. The airline’s statement also said passengers were informed about the change in departure time in advance via email and/or SMS.
“Due to inclement weather conditions affecting departures, the flight was retimed to depart Amritsar at 3.45 pm instead of the original departure timing of 7.55 pm. Affected passengers were notified in advance of the departure time change, through email and/or SMS, where possible, based on the contact details provided. Scoot sincerely apologises for the inconvenience caused. We are currently working to provide affected customers with the necessary assistance,” the statement from Scoot read.
After Airport authorities contacted the airline officials they were informed that all the passengers were communicated about the change departure time well in advance through email by their booking agents. Many passengers not aware of the schedule change were left behind, leading to chaos at Amritsar airport.
“All booking agents were informed well in time and they relayed the information to their clients. But only one agent could not inform his clients for reasons best known to him,” airport director of Sri Guru Ramdas Ji International Airport, Amritsar, V K Seth said. “If we talk about the change of timing of the flight, a proper procedure was followed as it was with the prior clearance from the Airport Authority of India, besides all authorities concerned,” Seth said.