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Air passengers left in lurch

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: It was an Air Sahara flight from Ahmedabad that took longer than usual to reach Kolkata. With many passengers forced to deplane at Delhi to change aircraft for "engineering reasons", this experience has left them far from happy.

"I bought the ticket on the Internet. I called up the airline to check whether the flight would stop at Delhi. I was assured that it was a direct flight. So it was really shocking when we landed in Delhi and then they asked us to deplane," said Homi Chettri, a Supreme Court advocate, who was a passenger on this flight.

Airline officials, however, claimed that it was a hopping flight. The aircraft was changed because it needed servicing.

"We usually don't ask passengers to deplane, but the aircraft from Ahmedabad was needed by the engineering department," said an Air Sahara spokesperson.

While the stopover at Delhi may not have been a problem for some, the delay of the new aircraft certainly was. "I was to have a meeting at 5 p.m. in Kolkata. My flight was to reach at 3 p.m., but it is now taking off from the Delhi airport at that time. What am I supposed to do? Why should we be made to change aircraft if it is a hopping flight?' asked Pusph Dev Sharma, a passenger on the aircraft.

The airline claimed that the flight was delayed due to air congestion. According to statement by Air Sahara duty officer Ashish Grover, the flight from Ahmedabad was delayed to Delhi due to "traffic congestion" and the incoming flight from Pune -- that was to take the passengers to Kolkata -- was delayed for the same reasons.

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