NEW DELHI: It took a Union minister to expose the shoddy service provided to flyers by airlines.
Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday lambasted Tata Group-owned Air India for allotting him a “broken and sunk” seat, prompting his ministerial colleague K Rammohan Naidu to instruct the airline to take “necessary action”.
Separately, Air India apologised for the incident and ordered a probe while the DGCA sought a report from the airline.
Later in the day, Chouhan said he spoke about his experience so that the airline’s management comes to know about it and other passengers do not face such problems again.
Describing it as an “unethical” practice where the airline charges passengers full fare and then makes them occupy defective seats, Chouhan in a post on X said he was travelling from Bhopal to Delhi to inaugurate a farmers’ fair in Pusa, attend the Natural Farming Mission meeting in Kurukshetra, and hold meetings with representatives of protesting farmers’ organisation in Chandigarh.
He boarded the Delhi-bound Air India flight AI436 from Bhopal and was allotted seat 8C. “When I reached my seat, I found it was broken and sunk. Sitting was uncomfortable,” he said on social media.
When he confronted the crew over the defective seat, he was told that the management had been apprised about the issue.
“Charging passengers full fare and making them sit on defective and uncomfortable seats is unethical. Isn’t this a form of deception towards passengers? Willl Air India take steps to ensure no passenger faces such discomfort or will it continue to exploit passengers?” he asked.
The civil aviation ministry asked Air India’s CEO and MD Campbell Wilson, to address the matter on priority.