Hotels full, fliers forced to wait at airport all day

Kolkata: When Etihad Airways flight from Abu Dhabi to Dhaka was diverted to Kolkata and landed in the city airport at 4.30 am on Thursday, the airline wanted to accommodate the 193 passengers and 13 crew members in a city hotel. But they remained in the airport's transit lounge for the entire day as there were no rooms available in any of Kolkata's star hotels.
Rooms in them were booked for guests attending weddings held in some of them while delegates to a medical convention had put up in one of the hotels.
"Every hotel we contacted, the sugar-coated smiles of receptionists would disappear," said an Air India official.
AI was in charge of ground handling of the aircraft that landed due to bad weather over Dhaka. As the weather did not improve till 11 am, the flight was cancelled as the duty time limitation of its pilot got over. Since then, airline officials launched a frantic search for rooms.
"Fliers created a ruckus and officials had a tough time convincing them. We got refreshments and only after 9 pm could we transfer them to the Ffort and Vedic Village," the official added.
Hoteliers say they are finding it tough to cope with the rush. All rooms have been booked for the entire month and more.
11/12/09 Arpit Basu/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Dec 2009