Chaos at Amritsar airport as 50 pupils for direct flight to Toronto deboarded

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 20

Chaos was witnessed at Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International (SGRDJI) Airport here when a number of students, who were supposed to board a direct flight to Toronto (Canada), were deboarded after being asked to take a flight via Dubai last night.

The students opposed the move fearing it would cause them unnecessary financial burden as they would have to follow the Covid-19 protocol at Dubai. Around 50 students missed the flight even as SpiceJet authorities gave varying reasons for offloading them.

The chaos continued till 8.30 am, when Member of Parliament Gurjeet Singh Aujla reached the airport during his return from New Delhi. He intervened in the matter and met with airport director VK Seth, SpiceJet station manager Komal Thakur and CISF authorities.

Later, Aujla issued a statement saying an agent had arranged a chartered plane for Toronto. “A SpiceJet plane was hired by agent Bharat Ghai for Dubai that would have further connected them to a Toronto flight. But the agent didn’t inform all passengers about their stay in Dubai. The passengers required a Dubai visa for stay there.

“The agent provided visa to around 200 passengers but due to shortage of time, some didn’t get visa in time. The chartered plane offloaded around 60 passengers, who didn’t have the Dubai visa and departed late night. The passengers were not aware of the plane’s status so they got agitated. The statements of passengers have been recorded and appropriate action would be taken.” However, the passengers and airlines reached a compromise in the evening.

Mohan Singh, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Airport), said: “The issue has been resolved as the airline assured that all passengers would be flown to Toronto soon on the same ticket.”