Mangaluru, Sep 12: As many as 49 Haj pilgrims from the coastal city and surrounding districts, who were supposed to board a flight on Friday evening, were in for a rude shock at Mangaluru International Airport when they were told last minute that their tickets were cancelled and booked by others.
A group of 54 Haj aspirants had opted to undertake Haj this year through private tour operators and had booked their tickets through city based Akbar Travels of India.
On Friday evening the pilgrims reached the Airport, from where they were supposed to board an Abu-Dhabi bound Jet Airways at 7 p.m. and then go to Makkah through a code-sharing flight of Etihad Airways.
However, a few minutes before the scheduled boarding time, 49 among the 54 passengers were denied boarding passes at the counter and were told that their tickets were not confirmed and already booked by other passengers.
This led to confusion among the pilgrims, who had paid a huge amount of money to the travel agency.
The remaining five passengers too refused to board the flight in solidarity with the stranded pilgrims, who were apparently duped by the travel agency.
Mohammad, one of the stranded passengers, expressed suspicion that that the travel agents might have sold their tickets to others for a higher cost.
The stranded passengers had to remain in the Airport as the travel agency did not make any arrangement for them even after the cancellation of the flight tickets without any prior information.
In the mid night, the travel agency sent two buses to the Airport to take the stranded Haj pilgrims to the Cochin International Airport in Kerala.
Sources said that the agency has convinced the pilgrims that it will send them to Makkah from another Jet Airways flight from Kochi on Saturday morning. More details are awaited.
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