After Air India, GoAir Withdraws Boarding Passes With Photos of PM Modi, Gujarat CM

PTI, Mar 26, 2019, 2:51 PM IST

New Delhi: GoAir has withdrawn its boarding passes with photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, the airline said on Tuesday, a day after Air India’s rolled back its passes with images of the two leaders.

The airline had taken a “cue from the Election Code of Conduct”, a GoAir spokesperson said, adding that its team in Srinagar inadvertently used unused stock of “Vibrant Gujarat” paper.

GoAir’s Srinagar Airport team inadvertently utilised unused stock of Vibrant Gujarat related paper which took place in January 18-20, 2019 for issuing boarding passes at the said airport. It was unintentional. Taking cue from the Election Code of Conduct we have instructed our airport teams to stop utilizing this type of paper with immediate effect, the spokesperson said in a statement.

On Monday, Air India decided to do the same after the issue ignited controversy on social media. Its boarding passes were also from the Vibrant Gujarat summit with photographs of the two leaders.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted on Monday evening that he was on a GoAir flight on Sunday and it “also had a similar boarding pass with the PM’s photo on it”.

An Air India spokesperson said on Monday that the boarding passes were printed during the Vibrant Gujarat Summit held in January this year and the photographs were part of the advertisement from ‘third parties’.

“Air India has decided to roll back the boarding passes of Vibrant Gujarat which had photos of the prime minister and the Gujarat chief minister,” said Dhananjay Kumar.