This CEO raises 'long-standing issue' after passengers miss S'gapore flight

After a Singapore-bound flight took off from Amritsar leaving behind 32 passengers, Sanjiv Kapoor, the CEO-designate of the grounded carrier Jet Airways, has said that this incident likely happened as a result of change in schedule of the flight and the travel agents not sharing the correct contact details of the passengers booked on it.

He said it's likely that the travel agent shared their own contact details with the airline, instead of providing the details of the affected passengers.

When a flight schedule is changed, airlines alert travellers booked on the plane using the contact details provided to them via emails and SMSes. Usually, this message lands in the inbox of travels agents, who fail to pass it to the passengers in time. 

"This appears to have been the result of a schedule change. Some travel agents do not provide customer contact information, instead inputting their own agency email and phone numbers. Onus is then on them to pass on such timing change messages to the customers," Kapoor tweeted on Thursday.

He said this has been a "long-standing issue and challenge" and airlines have often highlighted it. "Unfortunately there is no regulation that requires travel agents to input  actual customer contact info. Ideally this should be a mandatory requirement, that would prevent such issues," he added.

On Wednesday, 32 passengers could not board a Singapore-bound flight operated by budget carrier Scoot. 

A Scoot spokesperson told PTI on Thursday that the flight was originally scheduled to depart from Sri Guru Ramdas Ji International Airport at 7.55 pm on Wednesday, but the schedule was brough ahead at 3.45 pm due to inclement weather affecting departures.

The spokesperson said the passengers were notified about the change in schedule through email and SMS, based on the contact details provided.

"All booking agents were informed well in time and they relayed the information to their clients. But only one agent could not inform his clients for reasons best known to him," V K Seth, the director of the Amritsar airport, told the news agency.