Plight of an Air India passenger
Aly Zaker, On email
Experiences of Bangladeshis travelling abroad by Air India have been far from satisfactory. A recent episode of travel of a very dear friend of mine from Dhaka to London via Kolkata and Mumbai is a classic example of what a professional airliner ought not to be. First, there was an unusually long delay in Kolkata which no one from the airline was willing to explain. Far from it, they were not even willing to listen. During this delay the passengers were confined to a so-called transit lounge where the toilet facility was nothing to 'write home about'. Every time a passenger forewarned the airline staff that they would miss the connecting flight in Mumbai they were told that the London flight would wait for the passengers from Kolkata. When this flight finally arrived in Mumbai, lo and behold, the London flight had already left. Now began an insufferable wait for the next flight. It was a wait for hours. The ordeal was ghastly. There was no looking after the passengers, the toilets here were even worse than Kolkataclogged and overflowing. The Bangladeshi passengers were made to wait in a ghetto like waiting room while the foreign passport holders, even of Bangladeshi origin, were taken away to a hotel, the behaviour of the ground staff was despicably arrogant. These apparently minor incidents may have a far reaching negative rub off on bilateral relationship of the two countries without any fault of the people who rule them.
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