Indigo Passengers In Lucknow Spend 8 Hours On Aerobridge, Due To A Technical Snag In Aircraft
Nearly 100 passengers spent an entire night on an aerobridge before boarding an Indigo flight in Lucknow. The Airbus A320neo aircraft developed a technical snag which caused the passengers to wait eight hours. A picture posted on Twitter by a passenger who was stuck on the bridge reads 5:30am and still waiting. Indigo then replied to the passengers and wrote We understand the inconvenience caused.
Flying is infamous for involving oodles of stress - from the last-minute gate changes, flight delays, diversions, to traffic jams (more like people jams) - both at the gate and on the plane.
But really, how late can a flight be? Even in the worst case scenario, how long would you expect to wait to board a plane once you're on the aerobridge? One hour? Two? Four? In Lucknow, things were way worse than four - precisely, two times worse.
According to an HT report, nearly 100 passengers spent an entire night on an aerobridge, before boarding an Indigo flight.
The report states that the Airbus A320neo aircraft developed a technical snag, which caused the passengers to wait eight hours on the aerobridge.
5:30am and still waiting. Also, Pictures from the night that Indigo kept us waiting in the aerobridge for HOURS with false promises about departure, accommodation etc. pic.twitter.com/QBYLpaEk4I
¡ª debanjana paul (@PaulDebanjana) December 13, 2019
A picture posted on Twitter by a passenger who was stuck on the bridge reads, '5:30am and still waiting. Also, Pictures from the night that Indigo kept us waiting in the aerobridge for HOURS with false promises about departure, accommodation etc.'
The passenger went on to say, 'thanks to you I¡¯m stuck at the airport. Helpline says it cannot provide transport for my journey back home at 3am due to your delays(thanks to New ETD every 15 mins) nor can it provide any accommodation for the night'.
@IndiGo6E thanks to you I¡¯m stuck at the airport. Helpline says it cannot provide transport for my journey back home at 3am due to your delays(thanks to New ETD every 15 mins) nor can it provide any accommodation for the night.
¡ª debanjana paul (@PaulDebanjana) December 12, 2019
IndiGo¡¯s flight 6E 278 was scheduled to take off at 9:15 pm on Thursday, but it was delayed by over eight hours. The report states that its scheduled time of landing at Hyderabad was 11:15 pm on Thursday itself, but it finally departed from Lucknow at 6:00 am and landed at 8:19 am on Friday.
According to Indigo's online statement, the flight was affected due to the cascading effect of air traffic congestion at Delhi airport and bad weather too.
An aerobridge is an enclosed, movable connector, which most commonly extends from an airport terminal gate to an aeroplane.
This is not the first time the airlines has pissed off passengers. In fact, it was slammed for leaving behind luggage of the entire Delhi to Istanbul flight, not too long ago.
Just flew in on @IndiGo6E flight 6E 11 from Delhi to Istanbul last evening. We received this piece of paper when we were waiting for our luggage at the belt. The airline did not load the luggage of the ENTIRE FLIGHT. Not a single passenger got their luggage (1/n) #shameonindigo pic.twitter.com/7KF2VT0f2O
¡ª Chinmay Dabke (@chinmaydabke) September 16, 2019
At the time, #ShameOnIndigo had started trending on Twitter, when people got to know of the fiasco. Chinmay Dabke, who was on the same flight, took to his Twitter account to share the details of the incident.
Chinmay wrote ¡®Just flew in on @IndiGo6E flight 6E 11 from Delhi to Istanbul last evening. We received this piece of paper when we were waiting for our luggage at the belt. The airline did not load the luggage of the ENTIRE FLIGHT. Not a single passenger got their luggage (1/n) #shameonindigo¡¯.
Indigo then replied to the passengers and wrote, 'We understand the inconvenience caused. We're trying our best to reunite you with your baggage. Please DM us your contact number along with the PNR, we wish to speak with you'.
Airlines really need to get their act together. While the technical snag could not have been predicted or preempted, arrangements could certainly have been made to make passengers a little less uncomfortable. Eight hours on an aerobridge is not exactly comfortable.