Asish Mehta, Jayakrishnan
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, July 11: The maiden international Air India flight AI- 077, carrying 122 passengers landed at Biju Patnaik International Airport, Saturday at 9: 05am.
For some fliers, 21 of whom were international travellers, it was a harrowing experience coming to the City of Temples in their maiden international flight to Bhubaneswar. However, some passengers were happy to reach the city, avoiding long delays caused normally in completing immigration and customs clearances at New Delhi.
Reportedly, the luggage of at least six passengers was missing. The travellers who lost their luggage expressed their dismay on the lackadaisical attitude of Air India authorities when they reported the loss.
They said, Air India and airport officials were responsible for the misplacement of luggage and should have taken onus for recovering them immediately.
When contacted, Biju Patnaik International Airport director Sharad Kumar told Orissa POST he did not have any information about the passengers’ baggage being misplaced. The passengers were coming from Dubai to Bhubaneswar via Delhi.
“The luggage transportation is managed by Air India, so we do not have any information about it,” he said.
Air India station manager Tapas Ranjan Ray asserted that the airliner will take measures to return the misplaced luggage to the fliers within 24 hours.
Such incidents are very common in international flights as the connecting flights take more time to deliver the luggage at the passengers’ destinations, he said and assured the passengers that Air India will look into the matter immediately.
AI officials confirmed that they had received complaints from at least seven passengers about misplacement of their baggage en route.
Meanwhile, CISF officials said they have not received any complaint in this connection and added such incidents are quite common when passengers switch flights.
AI flight 077 started from New Delhi airport at 7am and reached Bhubaneswar at 9: 05am, carrying domestic and international travellers.
Some passengers appreciated the launch of Air India’s international operations from Bhubaneswar as this saved their time for immigration and customs clearances. Moosa Kalima Khan, who hails from Salepur in Cuttack said, “Earlier, the customs and immigration procedures used to be tiresome and take a couple of hours at New Delhi airport.”
Naseerudin Sheikh, from Bari in Jajpur district, said he is delighted that now there is no need to wait unnecessarily at Delhi airport.”
