Bangalore airport incident: Go First begins probe, offers free tickets

Go First on Tuesday said that it has initiated an inquiry into the incident where 55 passengers on its Bengaluru-Delhi flight were left on a passenger coach at Bengaluru airport on Monday even as aviation regulator DGCA held that the airline failed to comply with the relevant rules.

Moreover, the airline decided to offer all affected passengers one free ticket for travel on any domestic sector. "In line with our philosophy of customer centricity, the airline has decided to offer all affected passengers one free ticket for travel on any domestic sector in the next 12 months," said the airline in a statement.

"We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to the passengers due to an inadvertent oversight in the reconciliation of flight G8 116, from Bengaluru to Delhi.

Passengers were accommodated on alternate airlines to Delhi and onward to other destinations," said the airline.

The incident came to the notice of the DGCA, which said that as per regulations, the airline concerned is responsible to ensure adequate arrangement for ground handling, preparation of load and trim sheet, flight dispatch and passenger/cargo handling and also ensure that all the ground handling staff engaged in passenger handling undergo periodic soft skill training for sensitization, courtesy, behaviour and procedures for assisting the passengers.

"However, in the instant case, multiple mistakes such as lack of proper communication, co-ordination, reconciliation, and confirmation have resulted in a highly avoidable situation and therefore, the DGCA has issued show cause notice to Accountable Manager/ Chief Operation Officer of M/s Go First as to why enforcement action should not be taken against them for dereliction of their regulatory obligations," said the DGCA adding that to follow the principles of natural justice, they have been given two weeks time to submit their reply, and based on that further action will be taken.

--IANS

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