Pune: Rajnish Kumar (44), a working professional living in Vimannagar, received news about his mother’s death early on Friday.
A resident of Patna in Bihar, he immediately booked air tickets for his hometown, but was denied boarding by as he didn’t have an RT-PCR negative report.
“I booked an IndiGo flight from Pune to Chennai and onward to Bengaluru. From Bengaluru, I was supposed to catch a GoAir flight to Patna. I would have reached Patna by 9pm on Friday but was not allowed to board from Pune despite multiple requests,” Kumar told TOI.
There was no mention of a need for a negative RT-PCR test report for flyers to Chennai on IndiGo’s website. The regulations mention that Covid test will be performed on symptomatic passengers arriving from Maharashtra and Kerala. “Why there aren’t exemptions for those having to fly in emergencies?” he asked. “When I went to the swab collection unit, I was told I would get my report the next day. I had no option but to reschedule my flight to Saturday,” Kumar said.
“The passenger’s flight was from Pune to Bengaluru, with a stopover in Chennai. According to the regulations for Karnataka, it is mandatory for passengers from Maharashtra to carry an RT-PCR negative report not older than 72 hours. Without the report, the passenger wouldn’t have been able to board the Bengaluru flight. Our hands are tied by regulations,” an IndiGo spokesperson said.
01/05/21 Joy Sengupta/Times of India
0 comments:
Post a Comment