The Centre has sought a report from Air India on the issue of an allegedly broken seat that was offered to Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan on a flight from Bhopal to Delhi on Saturday morning.
Speaking with businessline, Union Civil Aviation Minister Rammohan Naidu said that the ministry has directed Air India to take immediate action on the issue.
“From our side, DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) will also be looking into the details of the matter promptly. And I have personally spoken to Shivraj ji also,” he told businessline.
“For me safety and comfort of all passengers is a top priority.”
According to senior civil aviation ministry officials, the report will seek to identify the deficiency in the seat and if the airline violated any provisions by selling such a product.
“We will take action only if the required safety and quality standards are not met,” a senior civil aviation ministry official told businessline.
As per a 2022 directive by the DGCA, airlines are barred from selling broken or unserviceable seats.
On its part, sources in Air India told businessline, that the seat in question was not substandard and thorough checks have been conducted to determine its quality.
“The aircraft is just two years old. The seat has been verified to be of a standard quality; there may be some concerns regarding the design, but it is not broken,” a senior Air India official told businessline.
Air India’s retrofit programme
Under Air India’s retrofit programme, nearly 20,000 seats on board its legacy aircraft have been changed till now.
An exclusively sourced video of the seat in question by businessline showed that the seat reclined and wasn’t broken.
Industry insiders though sided with Air India on the issue pointed out that the cushioning might have been a problem. Businessline was not able to verify this assertion.
The issue was triggered after Chauhan tweeted on Saturday morning, stating that while travelling from Bhopal to Delhi, he was allotted seat number 8C on Al436 which was “broken and sunken in”.
“It was uncomfortable to sit. When I asked the airline staff why the seat was allotted to me if it was bad, they told me that the management had been informed earlier that this seat was not good and its ticket should not be sold. There are not just one such seat but many more,” he wrote on his social media handle at X (formerly Twitter).
“My co-passengers requested me to change my seat and sit on a better seat, but why should I trouble another friend for my sake, I decided that I would complete my journey by sitting on this same seat. My impression was that Air India’s service would have improved after Tata took over the management, but it turned out to be my misconception.”
Furthermore, he said that it is “unethical to make passengers sit on bad and uncomfortable seats after charging them full amount.”
“Isn’t this cheating the passengers?.” An official reply from Air India is awaited.