Thursday, June 04, 2020

Cancellation and quarantine rules hold up fliers

Many fliers are getting stuck in Calcutta because airlines are cancelling flights following changes in quarantine rules in some states and poor phone network is leading to passengers missing alerts about changed flight timings.

The temporary closure of the Mumbai airport because of cyclonic storm Nisarga was another reason for the fliers getting stranded.

Gaurang Dalal, along with three others, was scheduled to fly from Bagdogra to Mumbai through Delhi on an AirAsia flight on June 2. But they were stuck in Calcutta till June 4 afternoon because of cancellations of several flights, he said on Thursday.

Dalal, who owns several hotels in Sikkim, was stuck there during the lockdown and was returning home.

“We were told at the Bagdogra airport that the Mumbai flight was cancelled but we were redirected through Calcutta. The flight to Mumbai from Calcutta was to leave at 8.15pm,” said Dalal.

However, at 5.35pm that day, he received a call from the airline and was told that the flight had taken off almost three hours before the scheduled departure.

The airline had arranged for hotel accommodation for the four persons on June 2 and had booked them on a SpiceJet flight the next day (Wednesday, June 3). However, after reaching the airport, Dalal came to know that the flight had been cancelled because of the cyclone.

AirAsia rebooked them again on an IndiGo flight for Thursday afternoon, which they finally took.

“We had to cancel flights to Mumbai because the airport was closed. The passengers were informed but there are serious network problems, for which many passengers are not receiving messages,” said an official of the airline.

Other airlines also said they had to cancel flights because of the cyclone and change in quarantine rules in some states.

Manipur has temporarily restricted flight movements from all parts of India because of Covid-19. Airlines said the state was allowing only three flights every day, forcing them to abruptly cancel flights.
04/05/20 Sanjay Mandal/Telegraph
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