Cafe

Travellers to Goa are being treated with disdain by international airlines

Passengers stuck at an airport for over 15 hours because the airline just gave up its responsibilities. Goans have been at the receiving end of such behavior or is this something common experienced by everyone

Herald Team

It was a flight scheduled to leave on March 20th from Dubai. Instead it left on March 21 and reached Goa at 5.15 pm making for a wonderful experience for all the passengers who had booked on the Air India flight. A passenger on twitter informed the world that they had not been provided with any information, no hotel stay or food. The staff of the airline had gone AWOL and it was an absolute mess. This has been quite a regular occurrence for passengers flying the skies. And it seems to be happening quite regularly with Goans, or is it an experience shared by everyone. Aloo Gomes Pereira of Trail Blazers India Pvt Ltd said he was personally not aware of the specific incident but the behavior of some of the airlines was appalling. He said “You can sue Air India for compensation. Strong legal action can be taken. You cannot take people for granted. It is a service provider and they flouted the rules. A 15 hr delay is not a joke. Whatever the reason, the clients need to be taken care of as per the law. ” Valigno Dias of Trade Wings said it seems the airline was not even aware of the delay. He said several people several of them Goans had been on the receiving end during the Covid period. Dias said the manner in which flights were cancelled either at London or Delhi was not good. He said “People have been left stranded in Delhi and Mumbai after landing from London in January. People have to be tested and if the flight is cancelled, they have to do it all over again. My contention is that when it is any other destination, it is not a problem but when it is Goa, they cancel despite having passengers.” Timothy Colasco from Par Avio said a lot of passengers had experienced problems. He said “A lot of guys flying from UK had horrible experiences in Delhi. There would be last minute changes in standard operating procedures. Due to the tests that have to be conducted many of them miss their flights. Many miss their connecting flights. Even if they have cleared their test, they will end up missing their flight. Many of them have to go in for a mandatory quarantine for which they have to pay”. He said he know of a person flying in from London on business class and who had a connecting flight at 3 o clock being made to stand in line till 11 the next morning and then getting cleared at 4.30. The airline in this case Vistara provided him with a free ticket and he was able to go. He revealed that Air India, Vistara, Virgin and British Airways were operating in a bubble between the UK and India but other airlines like Sri lankan airlines on which he had a ticket gave him his ticket on payment but then a few days prior to the day of departure informed him that the flight had been cancelled. They promised a refund but he has still not received it. Several airlines he said were playing this game of showing schedules on their website and were accepting bookings but would inform the paying customer of a delay or a cancellation and then take time to return the fare. Sylvester Franco who is based in Kuwait but whose wife was on the flight from Dubai to Goa said it was a miserable experience and he hoped no one would ever go through what she went through. He was unable to provide more information because he was at work in Kuwait city. One can only hope this does not become to norm in a Covid-19 world.

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