Kuwait-bound Air India flight leaves 15 passengers behind in Vijayawada

About 15 passengers, who were supposed to leave for Kuwait via the first-ever direct flight by Air India Express (AIE) from Vijayawada International Airport in Andhra Pradesh were left behind as their flight departed before they reached the terminal on Wednesday at 9 AM. 

Gannavaram Airport Director Lakshmikanth Reddy said, "The flight was earlier scheduled to depart 4 hours later. Passengers were informed about the rescheduling but they are alleging that they were not. Those people who booked tickets through agents were not informed by agents about rescheduling. Those passengers will have to wait until next week for Kuwait flight."

Andhra Pradesh | Over 15 passengers could not board the Air India Express flight from Vijayawada to Kuwait because the flight was preponed to Wednesday at 9:00 am. The flight was earlier scheduled to depart 4 hours later. Passengers were informed about the rescheduling but…

— ANI (@ANI) March 29, 2023

According to sources, passengers were at the terminal well in advance of the scheduled time of the flight departure i.e. 1: 10 PM as mentioned in their tickets

One of the passengers from Andhra Pradesh's Narsapuram said, "The departure time given in his ticket was 1:10 PM and we were asked to reach the airport by 11 AM. We came here by 10 AM and were told that the flight had departed as per the new schedule. We bought the ticket two days ago and there was no intimation about the change in timing."

He further mentioned that the Airline staff is claiming that they had informed us regarding the new schedule via various websites where tickets were sold. "How can they expect us to check with the websites for changes in the timings of flights for which tickets were already booked,” he further added.