Passengers of the Air India direct flight to Ahmedabad were left discontent and totally disappointed, after they were asked to disembark in Mumbai without any prior notice, instead of staying on the flight to continue the last leg of their journey. After years of campaigning by Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar, Prime Narendra Modi during his historic visit to the UK in his Wembley speech had promised a direct flight to Gujarat via Mumbai. As per definition, a direct flight may halt at another port before it reaches the final destination, but passengers for the final stop need not disembark. A non stop flight does not stop anywhere before it reaches the final destination.
From 15 December the direct flight to Ahmedabad was reinstated, and the Indian Prime Minister had attributed the drive behind the campaign to our Publisher/Editor and his 'special friend' Mr CB Patel.
But 15 days later, to the community's disappointment Air India has reportedly stopped flying their direct flights, going back to their earlier arrangements, where passengers had to disembark in Mumbai and get on to another flight, after waiting for a short while in Mumbai.
Vimlaben Patel & Kusumben Patel, who were travelling to Ahmedabad were not told the flight would not be flying direct to Ahmedabad. In Mumbai they were made to get off, do security check and change to another flight to go to Ahmedabad, leaving them totally confused. “We did not expect that we had to get off. This was totally unexpected in wee hour of the morning. We were not mentally prepared.”
Chetan Patel and Parul Patel, who had bought expensive alcohol bottles as gifts, not only had to disembark and go through another round of security check, but also were denied the bottles back in Mumbai, perhaps due to liquid restrictions.
Vijyaben Vyas who was a wheelchair bound passenger, told Asian Voice, “I chose a direct flight, because I did not want to get off at Mumbai. But I had to ultimately get off and no one can imagine the hassles a person like me faces. Very disappointing.”
Dhanwant and Sushila Patel called up the Asian Voice saying it was misrepresentation of the actual scenario and they felt cheated. “We booked this flight after reading in Asian Voice that Air India has a direct flight now. But this is not what we signed up for. I feel totally let down,” they added.
Yogesh and Toral Patel, who were flying on New Year's Eve, told Asian Voice, “The flight was supposed to leave UK at 1:30pm instead it only left at 7:30pm. This is really unacceptable.”
When escalated the matter to Tara Naidu, Regional Manager of Air India (UK & Europe), she told Asian Voice, “As per the schedule most of the London-Mumbai-Ahmedabad flights are direct from London to Ahmedabad via Mumbai. Passengers do not need to disembark at Mumbai, however understand that on a few flights there were some operational constraints due to which passengers had to disembark at Mumbai airport. Only few flights (AI130/25Dec 15 – 136 mins, AI130/26 Dec 15 – 156 mins, AI130/27 Dec 15– 143 mins and AI130/29 Dec 15– 90 mins) had delays in December over an hour due to operational issues and we are working towards resolving these issues. When delays are more than an hour, passengers are deplaned for their personal comfort."
