Early take-off, seat changes send AI fliers into a tizzy

MUMBAI: It was a chaotic Tuesday evening for fliers on a Chennai-bound Air India flight from Mumbai. First, a last-minute text informed them their flight will take

MUMBAI: It was a chaotic Tuesday evening for fliers on a Chennai-bound Air India flight from Mumbai. First, a last-minute text informed them their flight will take off ahead of schedule.

HT Image

When they boarded, some found another person assigned to their seats, and finally, they arrived three hours late.

Flight AI 094 was scheduled to take off at 6.15pm. But some fliers received a text saying it would leave at 4.55pm.

This caused confusion as check-in counters for domestic flights are shut 45 minutes ahead of take-off.

“We barely reached the airport when I got that message. I ran to the airline counter only to be told the flight will leave at the scheduled time, but via Bangalore,” said Mulund resident Mahalaxmi Ganesh.

According to airline sources, the back-and-forth was done to accommodate a few Bangalore-bound passengers whose flight was cancelled owing to a protest by some pilots.

An AI spokesperson said that the Bangalore and Chennai flights had to be combined for “operational reasons”.

Clubbing the two flights worsened the chaos.

More than one person had been allotted the same seat.

“When I asked a cabin crew personnel why the flight was being routed through Bangalore, she was clueless and said she was scheduled to operate a flight to Delhi,” said another passenger.

“The duplication of a few seats happened owing to clubbing of flights,” said the AI spokesperson.

The flight — scheduled to reach Chennai at 8.40pm — landed at 11.35pm.

“Luckily my brother came to pick me up because I went for a wedding. It is unsafe to travel from the airport that late,” added Ganesh who was travelling with her 11-year-old daughter.