MUMBAI, January 9: Here's a twist to the conventional missed-the-flight tale. Two passengers from Mumbai missed their flight as it took off an hour early!One of them, H Kamdar, a US-based NRI who was to fly to Rajkot by UP Air's flight UZ 003A at 7.30 am on December 28 was shocked to learn that the flight had already taken off at 6.30am.
Kamdar thought he was too early for the flight. "When I reached the airport at 6.05, I was shocked to see the counter closed - I thought I had reached early," said Kamdar, speaking to Express Newsline from his residence in Chicago, USA on Friday afternoon. "As I am a regular international air-traveller, I did not feel it necessary to check the departure timings beforehand," said Kamdar who was to visit his ailing mother in Rajkot. "I waited for nearly ten days for the airline to reply but sadly nobody has bothered to even respond to my complaint." He had booked his ticket from an agent Aum Tours and Travels, Andheri. The travel agent too did not inform him about
the rescheduling, he added. "We were not informed by the airline about the flight being re-scheduled. This had put us in a difficult position as the passenger faced hardships by wasting his entire day waiting for his IC flight to take off," said Harsha Mehta, managing director of Aum Tours commenting on the fledgling UP Air's undue hurry to take off. UP Air management however has what they term as the "logical" version. M Krishnan, sales manager, said, "Eight passengers were booked on the Rajkot flight of which six flew and two did not including H Kamdar. As the passenger-load on the Goa sector was heavy, we rescheduled the Rajkot flight so that the aircraft could be used for the busy Goa sector."
"As per our records, we did not have Kamdar's telephone numbers as the ticket was bought from a travel agent. We however had informed the agent's office about the rescheduling two days prior to departure," added Krishnan blaming the travel agent for what he termed as a "communication gap". Mehta, however, denied
the claim and said as soon as she realised on December 29 that the passenger had missed the flight she wrote a letter to Krishnan informing him about the inconvenience caused to the passenger and requesting him to investigate into the matter. "Till date, the airline officials have not responded neither by a letter or over the telephone," she claimed.
With neither the airline nor the travel agent claiming responsibility for the inconvenience caused to the passengers, Kamdar has sworn not to fly the airline anymore.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
