CAT Chairman Reddy says IndiGo did not allow him to board flight; airline apologises

Central Administrative Tribunal Chairman Justice L Narasimha Reddy Tuesday said he was not allowed to board an IndiGo flight despite having a boarding pass at Hyderabad airport, with the airline apologising for the incident.

The incident happened on Monday when Reddy was to take an IndiGo flight to Bengaluru.

Speaking to PTI over phone from Hyderabad, Reddy said the airline also arbitrarily cancelled his ticket for the connecting flight from Bengaluru to Hubli, where he was to attend meeting of a committee set up by the central government to investigate certain issues.

An IndiGo spokesperson admitted that the airline "failed" to meet its service standard in "this situation" and apologised to Reddy. The spokesperson also said that the airline would review its processes to prevent similar occurrences in the future.

"My flight was scheduled to depart at 0455 hours Monday. I cleared the security process at 0410 hours and went to the VIP lounge... when the boarding was announced, I was buying a water bottle," Reddy said.

According to him, soon the airline announced the final call for boarding and by the time he reached the boarding gate, it was closed.

"I requested them but they were adamant and did not permit me (to board the flight," he said.

A flight can take off before time but only when all passengers have boarded it. However, in this case, IndiGo departed earlier without taking all passengers on board, he added.

The CAT Chairman said he would soon be meeting Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu and Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) B S Bhullar over the issue.

After missing the IndiGo flight, Reddy said he took a SpiceJet flight to Bengaluru at 0600 hours since the flight to Hubli was to depart at 0810 hours.

On reaching Bengaluru, "I got to know that they (IndiGo) had cancelled my Hubli flight (ticket) also because I could not board the (IndiGo) flight from Bengaluru. It is cheating," he said.

Reddy, who had served as Chief Justice of Patna High Court, also said that IndiGo has "become a rogue in the air".

"We have contacted Judge Reddy to express our apologies. IndiGo is committed to courteous and hassle free service for all of our customers and we sincerely regret that we failed to meet our service standards in this situation," an IndiGo said in a statement.

"We are reviewing our processes to prevent a similar occurrence in the future," she added.