When Jay Shah (24), a business professional, boarded the Air France flight AF 17 from JFK Airport, New York on October 9, he had no inkling of the ordeal that awaited him. He and his fellow passengers were not only stranded for more than 24 hours at the Charles De Gaulle Airport, the largest airport in France, but they also claim to be ill-treated by the airport staff on the basis of their ethnicity.
First their connecting flight to Mumbai from Paris was delayed and then cancelled apparently due to technical issues as cited by the airline officials. A delay or cancellation of flights require the airline to provide passengers with two free phone calls, free meals, free accommodation and compensation for the ordeal, according to European law.
“We were denied access to the Air France, lounge which is supposedly meant only for business-class passengers. Instead, we were made to sleep in the airport’s upper deck resting area which had a limited number of seats, so most of us ended up sleeping on the floor. All the occupants of this resting area were mostly Indian,” says an enraged Shah who also claims that he was insulted by the restaurant chef when he asked for a vegetarian breakfast instead of the non-vegetarian meal voucher given to him.
Out of the 45 passengers, those with Schengen visas were accommodated in a hotel outside the airport, while the other 35, were made to apply for transit visa. Of the 35, only 6-7 people got transit visas. Shah claimed in his blog that despite the trouble faced by the passengers, airlines officials did not contact them for more than 18 days after the flight.
An Air France spokesperson told dna that the airline had maintained contact with Shah throughout the 18 days. Otherwise he would not have the proofs he posted on his website that were provided to him by the airline customer care. The spokesperson answered passengers will be compensated for their ordeal.
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