Andhra: 15 Passengers Left Behind As Flight To Kuwait From Vijayawada Leaves 4 Hours 'Early'

he weekly service to Kuwait by AIE started on Wednesday and it is the second international destination connected to the city after Sharjah of UAE.

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New Delhi: 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, news agency ANI reported.

According to the report, the passengers, including women, were at the terminal well in advance of the scheduled time of the flight departure, that is, 1.10 p.m. as mentioned in their tickets.

However, Air India Express left the airport about four hours before at around 10 a.m. as per the revised timings. The weekly service to Kuwait by AIE started on Wednesday and it is the second international destination connected to the city after Sharjah of UAE.

“Above 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 they’re 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,” ANI quoted Lakshmikanth Reddy, Gannavaram Airport Director, as saying.

According to a passenger from Narsapuram, the departure time given in his ticket was 1.10 p.m. and he was asked to reach the airport by 11 a.m. “We came here by 10 a.m. 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 said.

“The airline staff claim that they had informed us and 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 added.