A boarding pass with same seat number was allotted to two different passengers
Chennai: A squabble over a seat in a Bengaluru–Chennai flight by two passengers in an Indigo Airlines flight delayed the take off for more than 20 minutes on Friday evening. Two passengers who boarded the flight found that the airlines had allotted same seat to both of them. The argument between the passengers and crew members turned nasty as other travelers watched helplessly.
“We were not sure when it would get over. There were more than a dozen of Indigo employees trying to pacify the fighting passengers with no real solution in hand. Being a Friday evening, the flight was full” a passenger who witnessed the drama inside the Boeing aircraft told Deccan Chronicle.
According to Indigo airlines spokesperson, the confusion was due to the presence of a special staff passenger, who was allotted same seat which was earlier allotted to another passenger. "It looks like after allotting a seat to a passenger, a boarding pass with same seat number was allotted to person under special staff passenger category which led to confusion" airline sources said.
The crew finally decided to allot another seat to the special staff passenger and took off with a delay of 20 minutes.
When contacted IndiGo confirmed the incident of duplication of seats on board IndiGo flight 6E 277, enroute Bangalore to Kolkata via Chennai, on October 30, 2015. A statement from the airlines said that the staff at the check-in counter issued a boarding pass of a seat already allotted, to a standby passenger (passenger travelling on Staff Leisure Travel policy). Upon recognizing the error, the staff immediately informed the team at the boarding gate regarding the duplication, who further informed the ramp crew, and the issue was solved within five minutes, with the second passenger being assigned another seat on the same flight.
The aircraft scheduled to depart at 19:20hrs, proceeded for take-off at 19:40hrs, and landed in Chennai at 20:33hrs.
