Panaji: Goa-Hyderabad Indigo flight, 6E 259, left at least 15 passengers stranded after it allegedly departed 20 minutes ahead of its schedule on Monday.
According to a report in TOI, passengers claimed that Indigo did not make any announcement regarding the changed schedule.
The flight was to depart at 10:50 pm but sources said that after the baggage was loaded, boarding was closed and the pushback started.
“We reached the airport ahead of time and when we heard our names being called, we headed to the boarding gate. There we were told that the flight had left five minutes before we reached,” a passenger Aradhana Podavalli said.
Irate passengers demanded the airline to be accommodated in another Hyderabad flight. The situation further worsened when IndiGo asked the passengers to book connecting flights to Hyderabad as direct flights were not available.
“They are trying to get us seats on a connecting flight and we may reach only at 6 am or 8 am in the morning. They are asking us to pay 55,000 for new tickets?” Podavalli added.
An IndiGo spokesperson reportedly said the airline made several announcements calling the passengers to report at the gate.
“The boarding gate closed at 10:25 pm and they reached the gate at 10:33 pm. IndiGo staff looked for them at the airport while making frantic announcements over the hand-held loudspeaker,” the spokesperson said.
“Despite no fault on our part, we shifted them to the next morning flight free of charge,” the spokesperson as per the report, added.