Indigo flight leaves 6 stranded in B’luru; free flight tickets provided

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Allegedly, an Indigo flight departed from Bengaluru International Airport on Friday, leaving behind six passengers.

The flight, identified as 6E6162 bound for Mangaluru, reportedly took off at 2.45 pm, 10 minutes before its scheduled 2.55 pm departure.

Despite possessing boarding passes, two of the six passengers missed the flight. Indigo staff informed them that an early departure was announced at the airport.

The situation was eventually resolved as the six passengers were provided with free tickets for the next flight, 6E578, which departed at 8.45 pm (originally scheduled for 8.20 pm), and they reached Mangaluru Airport by 9.50 pm.

Unfortunately, two passengers intending to connect to Delhi-bound flights missed their connections due to this incident. An employee from Indigo's Customer Experience division denied claims that the flight departed 10 minutes early and asserted it left on time.

The flight supposedly left the gate at 2.43 pm and departed the airport at 2.57 pm, with departure time measured as becoming airborne.

The employee expressed apologies for the passengers' inconvenience and mentioned plans to discuss the matter with management and the operations team.

Passengers were advised to arrive at the airport two hours before departure, considering that the boarding gate usually closes 25 minutes before take-off, though this can change based on pilot instructions and other factors. It was noted that passengers who missed the flight were 15- 20 minutes late.

Media reports indicated that Indigo provided free flight tickets to all passengers for the next flight, attributing decisions to availability and factors such as senior citizens and expecting mothers.

An Indigo spokesperson referred to the matter as "very subjective."