Investigation into how a Singapore-bound flight took off hours ahead of schedule, leaving 35 people at the Amritsar airport, has been ordered by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
The investigation was started by the aviation regulatory authorities when a Scoot Airline flight that was initially scheduled to leave the Amritsar Airport on Wednesday at 7.55 pm, took off at 3 pm, hours before that time.
As a result, there was chaos at the airport, and those who had been left behind protested. They filed a complaint with the appropriate authorities at the airport. When airport authorities contacted airline representatives, they learned that the passengers had received an email informing them of the change in flight schedule.
“Around 280 passengers were to travel to Singapore but 253 passengers were rescheduled, leaving over 30 passengers behind,” the Amritsar airport Director said. The Amritsar Airport authority and Scoot Airline, a Singaporean low-cost carrier and a fully-owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines have both been asked for more information by the DGCA.
All customers were notified of the change in timing by email, said the airline. According to an airport official, the travel agency who purchased tickets for a party of 30 people failed to advise them (the passengers) of the change in flight timings, and as a result, the airline only carried the passengers who arrived on time.
A similar occurrence involving a GoFirst flight leaving behind 55 passengers who were travelling to the flight via shuttle bus was recently reported from Bengaluru airport. Four hours later, another flight apparently had room for the people that were delayed.
The Chief Operation Officer of GoFirst Airlines was sent a show-cause notice by the DDCA asking him to provide justification for not taking enforcement action against the company for failing to uphold regulatory requirements.
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