New Delhi
A senior citizen who uses wheelchair for mobility and his wife were recently stranded for 24 hours at Istanbul Airport after IndiGo allegedly “forgot” to put them on their connecting flight to India.
The elderly couple, Rajesh Shah (64) a wheelchair user and his wife Rashmi (59) were returning to Mumbai from London and had booked tickets from the airline with the London-Istanbul sector operated by Turkish Airlines and the leg to Mumbai by IndiGo.
The couple finally got the next day’s flight to Mumbai ater a harrowing 24 hours.
“My parents had a single PNR ticket for the journey on August 17. My father is a wheelchair-user as he had suffered multiple strokes and has undergone surgeries. My mother also cannot walk long distances so we had booked wheelchairs for both of them for use at airports. They landed in Istanbul as per schedule,” said Shahs’ daughter Richa, who is based in Bengaluru.
After landing, the ground staff assisted them with taking the connecting flight to Mumbai. “They were made to sit at the boarding gate with their boarding passes. When a few hours passed, my mother went to check at the counter regarding the flight status. The staff took the boarding passes from her and asked them to sit till further instructions. This kept happening repeatedly and they were only told: ‘My supervisor is on the way, you have to talk to him’,” Richa said.
The Shahs were finally told that the Mumbai flight had departed. “They panicked and reached out to me. I managed to contact IndiGo to assist them. The local staff at the airport only spoke Turkish and my parents could not communicate with them,” Richa added.
When she finally managed to speak to someone on the IndiGo helpline from India, the airline issued the couple a boarding card for a Mumbai flight the next day.
“My parents are vegetarians and need constant medication and medical support. They were stranded in this condition for 24 hours at Istanbul airport...on chairs in a secluded place with a loaf of bread and coke. They were told that they would be picked up from the same place for the next day’s flight,” Richa said.
After the issue became a media headlines, the IndiGo issued a statement saying that it was a regrettable case of a human error with their Turkish Ground Handling Services.
IndiGo further added, "We are aware of the incident of a mis-connection that happened at Istanbul airport with a senior couple travelling from London to Mumbai via Istanbul on August 17, 2023. This was a regrettable case of a human error with our Turkish Ground Handling Services, due to which the passengers missed their connecting flight to Mumbai. The IndiGo team at Istanbul extended assistance and provided them with the next available direct flight option. We have already taken up this incident to our partner airline and extend our sincere apologies to the affected passengers."
