A few passengers were left stranded in the airport terminal as a Delhi-Indore Indigo flight allegedly departed before time on Saturday evening.
The hapless passengers of flight 6E 436 claimed they had received an SMS alert from the airline that said the flight had been rescheduled from 4.50pm to 6.30pm. “We reached IGI well in time to catch the 4.50pm flight. But then the SMS came so we waited for about half an hour. An hour before the flight, we proceeded towards the boarding lounge when we were told it had already left,” said Sanjay Agarwal (50), a businessman.
Agarwal came from Ranchi on Saturday morning to take a connecting flight to Indore. “It is important that I reach latest by tomorrow morning. But Indigo officials have said there is no early flight available. They have also refused to arrange for accommodation for outstation passengers,” he said.
The passengers also alleged that the airport display boards reflected wrong flight status. But an IGI official said, “There was no mistake from our end. As informed by the airline, we changed the time to 5.25pm.”
The airline clarified through a spokesperson, “The flight took off at 5.49pm. Five passengers were left behind. We have accommodated four of them in tomorrow morning’s flight and one was reimbursed the fare as he demanded. Airlines will also pay for conveyance of these passengers. We are checking for the text message that the passengers have claimed conveyed wrong information.”