Summary
- Eight passengers on an IndiGo flight from Amritsar to Chennai had to spend the night in Bengaluru after they missed their connecting flight.
- IndiGo has apologized to the passengers and said it offered them the option of overnight accommodation.
- The flight in question, IndiGo flight 6E478, is a daily multiple-stop service from Srinagar to Chennai.
Eight passengers traveling on an IndiGo flight from Amritsar in North India to Chennai in the South faced inconvenience and travel disruption after they missed their flight connection in Bengaluru. While the passengers allege that IndiGo did not want to operate the flight, the airline says it was a case of flight delay.
IndiGo apologizes
India’s largest airline, IndiGo, has apologized to eight passengers traveling from Amritsar to Chennai via Bengaluru. These travelers were booked on IndiGo flight 6E478 (more on the flight details later), which was supposed to carry them from Amritsar to Chennai via Bengaluru. But they missed their connecting flight in Bengaluru and had to spend the night in the city. While the passengers have a different account, IndiGo released a statement that said,
“Due to the delay of the incoming aircraft from Amritsar, these passengers were unable to board the onward flight to Chennai at the Bengaluru airport. IndiGo ground staff made every possible effort to help passengers make the connection, but due to lack of time, they were unable to board the aircraft.”
Photo: BoeingMan777 | Shutterstock
The airline said it was deeply apologetic about the inconvenience caused to the passengers and gave them the option of overnight accommodation and booking on the next available flight. It added that some passengers chose to stay at the airport lounge instead.
What did the passengers say?
Early reporting on the matter presented the passengers’ account of what happened, and they said that they were asked to deboard the aircraft in Bengaluru as IndiGo did not want to fly to Chennai with just a few passengers.
According to The Times of India (the report mentions six passengers, not eight), the travelers said that they were asked to leave the aircraft and were told that they would fly on another flight to Bengaluru and that their boarding passes for that flight were ready. But once inside the terminal, they learned they could only travel to Bengaluru the next day.
About the flight
With two different accounts of this story, we wouldn’t blame you if you’re slightly confused about what happened. However, we looked into the flight itself and the schedule it follows to get some clarity.
IndiGo flight 6E478 is a multiple-stop service that starts in Srinagar and ends in Chennai with two stops in between – Amritsar and Bengaluru. The airline operates this service with an Airbus A320 and, on most days, uses the same aircraft for all three legs of the journey.
But Flightradar24 shows that on some days, there is a change of aircraft for the Chennai-Bengaluru leg, which is exactly what happened on November 19. According to the flight tracking app, the Srinagar-Amritsar and Amritsar-Bengaluru legs were flown by an A320 registered as VT-IFN, and the Bengaluru-Chennai leg was served by a different A320 registered as VT-IIU. Simple Flying has contacted IndiGo and will update the article with their comments.
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Source: The Times of India