(a) whether several flights of Air India are delayed due to late arrival of VIPs;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether incidents of accommodating VIPs in Air India flights by deboarding the other passengers have come to the notice of the Government in the recent past; and
(d) if so, the details of such incidents reported during the last one year and the action taken against the employees found guilty of deboarding the
passengers?
Minister of State in the Ministry of CIVIL AVIATION
(Dr Mahesh Sharma)
(a): No, Madam.
(b): Does not arise in view of (a) above.
(c) and (d): Only one incident of offloading had occurred at Leh Airport in the last one year. A Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) had been issued by Air Force,Leh,on 22nd June, 2015, Accordingly, the Delhi bound flight for 23rd June, 2015, was preponed and rescheduled to depart at 1020 hrs. All passengers whose contact numbers were available were informed. The check-in process was completed by 0935 hours. The boarding cards, however, continued to show the boarding time as per the pre revised departure time. As per records, one passenger who was also scheduled to travel with his family in the same flight, did not get the message of preponement of flight and had reported late as per the revised departure time and had been made to standby, as a message had been received at 0940 hrs that a VVIP and his PA were to travel to Delhi on this flight. The confusion among passengers occurred due to the preponement of the flight on account of NOTAM, and as some of the passengers could not be
contacted due to non availability of their contact numbers.