Several NRIs fail to book flights to US, stuck in TN

Several NRIs fail to book flights to US, stuck in TN

Ayyappan.V@timesgroup.com

1.6.2020

Chennai: Several NRIs who work in the US are still stranded in Tamil Nadu as many of them could not book tickets on the three Air India flights on Saturday. The tickets were sold out soon after bookings began and many missed out after the airline’s website and app slowed down.

There are around 5,000 people stuck in different cities, including 500 in Chennai.

Erica Mukherjee, an NRI stranded in Chennai, said, “Two to three flights occasionally are not enough. There are too many people waiting to travel. Only 10 to 15 people from Chennai managed to buy tickets. We all must go back immediately as our jobs are at stake and many are on loss of pay.”

The ministry of civil aviation is yet to device a concerted plan to help stranded NRIs to travel to the US in spite of the repeated appeals on social media, petitions and daily hashtag campaigns. More than 5,000 NRIs have come together in a group created in a messenger app and are communicating and coordinating daily.

Akshaya Viswanathan, who is stranded here while her husband is in San Diego, said, “Our only hope was resumption of international flights in mid-June. That will not happen now. Our hope is to secure seats on flights going for Vande Bharat mission.”

However, the experience of booking tickets on the three flights on Saturday was not reassuring for many who waited and logged in after they saw a tweet about the flights by Air India.

Gowtham from Seattle, who is stuck in Chennai, said, “My hopes of getting a ticket in the next lot is diminishing if the booking experience is going to be anything like what happened yesterday. There was website and app error. Payments got deducted while tickets did not get confirmed. We are gathering information about everyone who needs to travel and are planning to present a case to Air India, Ministry of Civil Aviation and DGCA.”

Air India official said that bookings for flights to the US began on Saturday but it was not true that the website slowed down because of high demand. Civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri has tweeted that 1,417 people flew from India on Vande Bharat flights and more flights will be operated to the US and Canada.