Passengers allege misbehaviour by Jet Airways staff

New Delhi: There has been some alleged misbehaviour by the Jet Airways staff with Patna-bound passengers of flight 9W-727, on Sunday, at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in the national capital. The passengers, who have also named the staff, have accused the airline of using derogatory language pertaining to their region.

Passengers claimed that the Jet airways staff had allegedly said, “You Biharis deserve to travel by bus and train, not by flight.”

The passenger further alleged that the airline staff even denied apologising for their racial comment.

“There were around 116 passengers who were intended to go to Patna on Sunday morning. The flight was scheduled to fly at around 11.20 am, but was delayed and re-scheduled to fly at 12.20 pm. However, it was again delayed later till 2.55 pm. When we protested and asked them to arrange another flight for us, one of their staffer, posted at gate number 49 of Terminal 3, taunted us and made racial comment,” said Vijay Kumar Dubey, who works with the Australian government as a water researcher and is a resident of Delhi.

“Majority of the passengers were hurt by his derogatory remark and asked him to apologise. However, he went away from there without providing any solution. Later, Ashok Topswamy, another employee of the Jet Airw-ays, also hurled abuses at our community,” he added.

The passengers were shocked and lodged a complaint with the Air Sewa app.

They claimed that after repeated delays, the flight was finally cancelled and they had to wait for hours without any basic facilities such as water and refreshment, which was supposed to be provided by the airline in such cases.

Meanwhile, the airline downplayed the incident and said, “In order to minimise inconvenience for our guests, Jet Airways on Monday operated an additional flight from Delhi to Patna at 12.30 pm with 59 guests on board. This additional flight was in lieu of the cancelled flight the night before due inclement weather.

“Furthermore, Jet Airways, as an airline who always puts the customers first, would like to clarify that none of our staff made any insensitive statements as was perceived by some guests travelling to Patna. For the guests’ comfort, the affected guests were provided with hotel accommodation for an overnight stay in Delhi. However, some guests chose to travel by coaches to Patna organised by the airline. Jet Airways regrets any inconvenience caused to its guests.”