Friday, February 12, 2021

Weather conditions in north India delay several flights to & from Pune

Pune: Poor visibility in north India, especially in Delhi, delayed a majority of flights to and from the city on Thursday.

Between 9am and 4pm, 10 departing flights — to Delhi, Ahmedabad, Patna, Lucknow, etc — faced delays ranging from two to four hours. In addition, around 10 inbound flights from Delhi, Kolkata, Prayagraj, etc, saw similar delays through the day.

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To compound matters, flyers claimed some airlines did not provide them any refreshments.

“I have been waiting at the airport since the morning. The airline officials have not offered even tea to passengers, unlike other airlines. I did not expect such poor service from the national carrier,” Lalita Bindra, who was waiting for an Air India (AI851) flight from Pune to Delhi, said.

The flight, which was scheduled to arrive from Delhi around 8.40am and leave an hour later to Ahmedabad, was delayed by over six hours.

Passengers said airlines staff were also not very forthcoming. “The wait was made more frustrating by a lack of proper information by airlines staff,” a passenger waiting in Kolkata to catch a GoAir flight to Pune said.

The flight, scheduled for a 1.15pm take-off, was delayed by over five hours.

The passenger added that such delays inevitably cause crowding at the airports. “We can’t really complain as the delay was weather-related,” the passenger said.

Given that flights are operational only for 12 hours, between 8am and 8pm, at the Loegaon airport every day, any delay would cause bunching of flights, leading to crowding in the facility.

Meanwhile, airlines like IndiGo and SpiceJet issued alerts on social media about poor weather conditions at several airports. “Due to bad weather in Delhi (DEL), all departures/arrivals and their consequential flights may get affected,” a SpiceJet alert read. The airline issued similar notices for flights from Bengaluru, Varanasi, etc.

12/02/21 Joy Sengupta/Times of India

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