I booked three tickets in Air Deccan from Chennai to B’lore on May 1st and the flight was suppose leave Chennai at 9:15pm. When we are about to leave for the airport we received an SMS saying that the flight is rescheduled for 11:15pm, but some unfortunate passengers didn’t even receive this SMS. When we reached the airport at 10pm I enquired 10 times to make sure that flight is going to leave at 11:15pm, Air Deccan staff confirmed the same and I did my check in. Since I heard enough of Air Deccan, luckily I didn’t go for security check, because once you cross the security area you cannot see or hear anything about Air Deccan flight.
After waiting for more than hour at the airport when I enquired the AD staff about the flight status I was told the flight is coming from Hyderabad and it will come any time to Chennai. Again after half an hour when I enquired about the flight from Hyderabad, I was told that flight from Bangalore to Hyderabad has not yet started from Bangalore, voila! What a great surprise! Now the flight has to start from Bangalore then go to Hyderabad and then come to Chennai to take us to Bangalore. This whole ordeal took about four hours and the flight finally reached Chennai at 1:15am and we reached Bangalore at 2.15am.
Since I know that I can’t get my refund from AD and there are no other flight’s to B’lore until next day we waited the whole time with two small kids at the airport. At least we knew what’s going all along but there were 50 to 75 other passengers who had cleared the security check at 10pm but didn’t know anything about the flight status until 12.30 am because Air Deccan never updates there information any where in the airport. I don’t know how the Airports are allowing such airlines to operate, I believe there should be some kind of regulations where an airline can not run the airplane’s like local bus.
At the end when all the passenger’s were shouting and screaming at the AD staff, there was not even a single apology from the AD staff, which was very rude. I wish I could file a lawsuit against this airline.
I have flown some many times in various Domestic and International flights but never seen anyone using a flight as a Share Auto. Only in Air Deccan you can see the passengers will be boarding the flight while still there are some passengers to leave the flight. Also, Air Deccan is the only airlines which runs the show on a piece of paper, if you have noticed, all the flights boarding, landing and take off is noted down in a piece of paper.
I can take all these with a pinch(packet full) of salt, but if this is how they are going to be in all the other aspects, then I am really worried about the airline safety, I was really scared that this airline is not worried about anyone on board other then saving time and money.
My little advice to everyone is that, flying in Air Deccan is like risking your life. Since I have worked for a reputed international airlines company in my past, I know how important the airline safety is and I am sure Air Deccan is not following anything.
Please do not risk your life with this Cheap Airline!
-John