Amritsar: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered an inquiry into how a Singapore-bound flight, with 35 passengers on board, took off hours ahead of schedule at the Amritsar airport.
A Scoot Airline flight was scheduled to depart from Amritsar airport at 7.55 pm on Wednesday but took off at 3 pm, hours before the departure time.
This caused chaos at the airport and angry passengers protested. They lodged their complaint with the authorities concerned at the airport.
When the airport authorities contacted the airline authorities, the airline officials informed that the passengers were informed about the change in flight timings through e-mail.
Around 280 passengers were supposed to go to Singapore, but 253 passengers were rescheduled, leaving out more than 30 passengers.
The DGCA has sought details from both Scoot Airline (which is a low-cost airline in Singapore and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines) and the Amritsar Airport Authority.
According to the airline, all passengers were informed about the change in timings through email. An airport official told media that the travel agent (who had booked tickets for 30 people in a group) had not informed them (passengers) about the change in flight timings, due to which the airline took off with passengers who reported on time.
A similar incident was recently reported from Bengaluru airport when a Go First Delhi-bound flight left 55 of its passengers.
The passengers were on their way to board the plane via a shuttle bus. The passengers who were left behind were reportedly accommodated on the second flight four hours later.
The DDCA has issued a show-cause notice to the chief operating officer of Go First Airlines as to why enforcement action should not be taken against him for disobeying their regulatory obligations.