Flyers vent ire on airline staff

New Delhi: With delays as long as eight hours and no information from airlines to bank on, passengers at the IGI Airport were a harassed lot.
Most vented their ire by screaming at airline staff but passengers of a Spice Jet flight to Jammu simply refused to get off the aircraft after their flight was cancelled.
SG851 from Mumbai to Jammu and Srinagar was supposed to land in Delhi at 8 am but due to the fog, the aircraft first waited in Mumbai and later was diverted to Jaipur. When the flight landed in Delhi from Jaipur at 1.15 pm, its onward journey to Jammu was cancelled due to bad weather over the region. Of the 20 passengers who were headed for Jammu, some of them refused to get down from the aircraft and stayed inside for over an hour, demanding to be sent to their destination. They finally left only on being assured that the airline would provide them with hotel accommodation.
It wasn't only in Delhi that passengers spent 2-8 hours sitting in the aircraft. With the airport almost non-operational for close to five hours, several flights coming in from other cities also had to wait for almost 2-3 hours before they got clearance from the ATC. Sunil Singh, who landed in Delhi from Lucknow at 1.30 pm, said his flight was to land in Delhi at 11.30 am but since the aircraft from Delhi did not reach Lucknow, another aircraft that was flying from Bangalore to Delhi was diverted to Lucknow from where all passengers were brought to the Capital. Another couple who were to reach Delhi at 8 am, finally landed from Mumbai at 1.30 pm. Some flights that were scheduled to take off in the morning were delayed till the evening. Many who were waiting at the airport since morning complained that the airlines only informed them about cancellations after they had spent several hours at the airport.
30/12/08 Times of India

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Categories: Airports Dec 2008, Indian Aviation- In General Dec 2008