US-bound Etihad's last-minute cancellation of bookings costs Indian students lakhs: Report

One Etihad spokesperson told the publication that the bookings were cancelled due to an operational payload restriction

Scores of Indian students were left in the lurch when Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways cancelled their flight bookings to the United States. Because the airline did not allow them to rebook, many of the students reportedly had to buy last-minute tickets on other airlines, paying around Rs 2 lakh for a one-way trip.

According to a report in The Times of India, the students were compelled to book tickets in other airlines at a huge cost as the semesters in the US were about to commence soon.

“Etihad customer care official said I will have to wait for 20 days to be rebooked, a waiting time I can ill afford,” the report quoted a student as saying.

“I had booked the Etihad flight in early June and paid Rs 94,000 for a one-way trip. Today, I booked another ticket, this time on Air India which cost Rs 2.19 lakh. It's for travel on August 10, that was the cheapest I could find,” another student told the publication.

An Etihad spokesperson told the publication that the bookings were cancelled due to an operational payload restriction—payload means the total weight of passengers and cargo that an aircraft can carry—on a flight from Abu Dhabi to New York on August 4.

A payload restriction means cutting the volume of passengers or cargo to reduce the weight of the flight, to carry increased fuel. A flight taking a longer than normal route, which demands higher fuel uptake, which affects engine performance, would come under ‘payload restriction’.

Etihad said its teams were reaching out and apologised for the inconvenience caused, and added that they would provide compensation to those affected. However, parents of the affected students took to Twitter to lambast the airline.

“You guys are over books and playing strategies out there. Better reschedule our flights from Mumbai to Chicago…” a parent tweeted.

The cheapest one-way ticket from Mumbai to the US for this week on Thursday was Rs 1.4 lakh, the report said.