Air Sahara to compensate stranded passengers with free return tickets

Passengers complained that they received no food, refreshments or blankets throughout the night.

BY A CORRESPONDENT
6th January 2006
Passengers on a Mumbai-Delhi Air Sahara flight had a harrowing time recently, when their flight to Delhi was diverted to Lucknow. The passengers had to spend the night at the Lucknow airport inside the plane.

According to reports, the Air Sahara passengers were given no information on why the plane was held up in Lucknow, and how long it would take to reach Delhi. The Sahara aircraft spent the entire night on the Lucknow airport runway, with the passengers holed up inside.

Bad weather had struck Delhi again, due to which the Air Sahara flight which left Mumbai at 8.30 PM could not land in Delhi. It was diverted to Lucknow, where they spent the night in the plane with gritted teet.

Passengers complained that they received no food, refreshments or blankets throughout the night. The airline had served dinner when the plane left Mumbai airport, but there was nothing after that.

After the Air Sahara chaos, the directorate general of civil Aviation said that it will probe the case of the stranded Air Sahara passengers. Following this, Air Sahara announced that it will give free return tickets for all the passengers who suffered that night, to all any city on its network.

According to reports, of the 160 passengers on board, some children even suffered bouts of vomitting.

Apparently, Air Sahara was unable to take the passengers to the lounge since it was already crowded with about 300 passengers who were also stranded in Lucknow due to bad weather in Delhi.