Sixty Toronto-bound passengers, most of whom were students, were left stranded at Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport here as the agent who had booked a chartered flight for them allegedly cheated them.
To board the flight, passengers, along with their kin, started arriving at the airport on Monday afternoon. There were two chartered flights of SpiceJet, which were to take them to Toronto, Canada. However, they were not allowed to board the flight. Following intervention of Amritsar MP Gurjit Singh Aujla, their issue was resolved as the airline agreed to ferry many passengers on existing tickets.
Taneet Kaur, 25, a resident of Kaithal, said, “When we bought the ticket, we were told that the flight to Toronto from Amritsar would be direct. We also got online confirmation of the ticket. When we reached here at 4am today, we were told that there will be a layover in Dubai for which a visa is needed that we did not have. The person who charged money from us for the ticket has cheated us.”
Father of another student said, “The ticket was sold claiming that it was a direct flight, but a visa was issued for Dubai. We bought the ticket for ₹1 lakh. We paid about ₹1.25 lakh for the quarantine period in Toronto. We will lose this money if justice is not done to us.”
{{/usCountry}}Father of another student said, “The ticket was sold claiming that it was a direct flight, but a visa was issued for Dubai. We bought the ticket for ₹1 lakh. We paid about ₹1.25 lakh for the quarantine period in Toronto. We will lose this money if justice is not done to us.”
{{/usCountry}}MP Aujla said, “As per our investigation, the agent sold the tickets stating that the flight will from Amritsar to Toronto. When he sold 300-400 tickets, he hired an aircraft of SpiceJet from Amritsar to Ras Al Khaimah airport in Dubai. When the passengers arrived at the airport, they were told that there will be a layover in Dubai. Some of the passengers were intimated about it two days ago, but not all of them knew. Those who were intimated had applied for a Dubai visa, but many of them could not board the flight because of late issuance of the visa. Those passengers who were not aware of such conditions could not board the flight.”
The MP said, “Apart from the late arrival of the visa, the agent sent an email to the airline two hours before the departure asking it to not carry 31 passengers as per the order of the embassy. So, it was a fraud with the passengers who were told that it was a direct flight. Most of the passengers didn’t know the difference between a scheduled flight and a chartered flight. So, they became a soft target for the agent.”
Aujla said he has met police and airport officials in this regard and action is being taken against the person(s) responsible. The matter has also been brought to the notice of Union civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri, he added.
Assistant commissioner of police (airport) Mohan Singh said, “The matter has been resolved as the airport has agreed to let the passengers travel on existing tickets.”