Indigo flight leaves behind CAT chairman at Hyderabad airport, apologises

Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) chairman and former Patna High Court Chief Justice L Narasimha Reddy has alleged that an Indigo airlines flight took off before the departure time leaving him behind.

L Narasimha Reddy has decided to file a case against Indigo and is planning to meet the civil aviation minister and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) over the incident.

Justice Reddy was traveling from Hyderabad to Hubli via Bengaluru on November 5. Reddy said he was at the Hyderabad airport in the VIP lounge as the protocol is that he should be the last one to board the flight. As soon as he heard the final boarding call, he went to fetch a water bottle and on returning found the boarding gates to be closed.

"It was hardly two minutes that I went to get the bottle, the gates were closed and there was no one. One Indigo staff member was there on the next counter who told



me that the flight had departed 20 minutes in advance because it was flying out of the base," said Justice Reddy.

Justice Reddy said that he bought another flight ticket and reached Bengaluru to board the Indigo flight to Hubli. On reaching Bengaluru, he was told that his ticket was cancelled as he didn't board the Hyderabad flight.

"I had to buy another ticket. How does it matter if I don't board the Hyderabad flight? I'm in Bengaluru now much ahead of time and still, they have cancelled my ticket. This is a loot and nothing less than that," he added.

Meanwhile, Indigo in a statement said, "We have contacted Judge Reddy to express our apologies. IndiGo is committed to courteous and hassle-free service for all of our customers. We sincerely regret that we failed to meet our service standards in this situation. We are reviewing our processes to prevent a similar occurrence in the future."