AMRITSAR, Jan 19: Air passengers staged a protest at the Sri Guru Ram Ji International
Airport in Amritsar as a flight for Singapore left behind 35 passengers and
took off ahead of schedule.
The Scoot flight TR509 with a departure time of 19:55 took off at 16:40 on
Wednesday. Passengers who were not aware of the schedule change were left behind.
The incident created chaos at the airport.
Over 280 passengers had booked for travel to Singapore, but the plane took
off with 253 flyers, leaving nearly 35 passengers behind.
The airline told the airport authorities that passengers had been informed
about the change in flight timings via e-mail. A Scoot spokesperson said the
flight was to depart at 7.55 pm but it was prescheduled to 3 pm “due to inclement
weather”. It is learnt that the travel agent who booked the 30 tickets in a
group did not inform the travellers and that the contact numbers or email of
individual passengers were not given to the airline.
The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said it is looking into the
matter.
Scoot Pte Ltd, operating as Scoot, is a Singaporean low-cost airline, a subsidiary
of Singapore Airlines.
Another incident
This is the second such incident of a flight leaving behind passengers in a
month's time. A Go First (former Go Air) jet flying from Bengaluru to Delhi
on January 9 had left behind 55 passengers in a coach at the airport.
The airline apologized to the passengers and said that the incident had happened
due to an oversight during the screening of passengers before the flight and
de-rostered all employees associated with the incident. It has also instituted
an inquiry. The passengers were flown to Delhi on other flights by the airline.
The airline is also offering a free domestic ticket valid for 12 months for the
affected passengers as a compensation.
The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation promptly sent a show-cause notice
to the airline.
