Air India, India’s national carrier, denied reports that it had neglected to take care of its customers grounded due to technical failure with a flight from Paris to New Delhi.
Media reports had said that forty Indian students, who were stranded at an airport in Paris, were forced to sleep on the floor of the Charles de Gaulle airport on Tuesday night as Air India did not provide hotel accommodation to them.
“All necessary measures were taken to reduce inconvenience to the passengers,” Air India said.
Owing to the ongoing air show in Paris, all hotels in the vicinity of the airport and the city were full, it said.
“Understanding the immediate needs of the passengers, city hotels in far off places were also checked for accommodation and a few passengers were accommodated in a distant hotel.
“Due to night curfew at Charles de Gaulle (CDG), Paris, most of the restaurants and snack counters also close at 2200 hours. However, all passengers were served sandwiches, juice and water in the night, and taken for breakfast and lunch the next day.
“The passengers were kept informed of the status of the flight at all times by Air India at the Paris airport.”
All efforts were made to transfer passengers to other airlines. Only limited seats were available due to shortage during peak season on the Paris-India sector, it added.
Air India took a decision to re-route the London-Delhi flight AI 116 of 17th June 2015 to Paris to pick-up the remaining stranded passengers including the group of students from the Paris airport. All passengers from Paris reached Delhi on 18th June 2015 early morning.