‘Broken, sunken seat’: Shivraj Chouhan joins list of unhappy Air India fliers

Air India has for long faced passengers’ ire over shoddy services, and many expected things to improve when the Tata Group took charge of the airline. However, none other than Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan joined the list of unhappy passengers on Saturday (February 22) as he slammed it for allotting him a “broken and sunken” seat.

The Union agriculture minister wrote about his ordeal on X and said it was “unethical” on part of the airline to charge passengers full fare and then make them occupy defective seats. Replying to his post, Air India apologised for the “inconvenience”, and ordered to look into his complaint “carefully”.

A minister’s ordeal

Chouhan wrote that he was travelling from Bhopal to Delhi to inaugurate a farmers’ fair in Pusa, attend the Natural Farming Mission meeting in Kurukshetra, and hold discussions with representatives of the farmers’ organisation in Chandigarh. He boarded the Delhi-bound Air India flight AI436 from Bhopal.

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“I was allotted seat number 8C. When I reached my seat and sat down, I found that it was broken and sunken in. Sitting was uncomfortable,” the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister wrote on X.

According to Chouhan, when he confronted the crew over the allotment of a defective seat, they told him that they had apprised the management about the condition of the seat and told them that the seat should not be sold to passengers.

Chouhan claimed several seats on the flight were in a similar condition.

“Isn’t this cheating passengers?”

“Fellow passengers insisted that I exchange seats with them and take a better one, but I didn’t want to trouble any of my friends for my own comfort. So, I decided to complete my journey in the same seat,” he stated.

Chouhan said he assumed Air India’s service would have improved after being taken over by the Tata management, but he was mistaken. “I am not concerned about my discomfort, but charging passengers full fare and then making them sit in defective and uncomfortable seats is unethical. Isn’t this like cheating passengers?” he remarked.

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Chouhan further asked whether the Air India management would take steps to ensure that no passenger faces such discomfort in the future, “or will it continue to exploit passengers’ urgency to reach their destination?”

Airline responds

Expressing “regrets” for the inconvenience caused to the Union minister, an Air India spokesperson said in a statement, “We are conducting a thorough investigation into the matter to ensure that such incidents are not repeated.”

“Air India deeply regrets the inconvenience caused to Hon'ble Union Minister, Shri Shivraj Singh Chauhan ji on his flight from Bhopal to Delhi. This does not reflect the standard of service we strive to provide to our guests, and we are conducting a thorough investigation into the matter to ensure that such incidents are not repeated,” the spokesperson said.

Also, taking note of Chouhan’s tweet, Air India replied on X, “Dear Sir, we apologize for the inconvenience caused. Please be rest assured that we are looking into this matter carefully to prevent any such occurrences in the future. We would appreciate the opportunity to speak with you, kindly DM us a convenient time to connect.”

(With agency inputs)