Back'Don't know what to do': Domestic flights restart hits chaos and cancellations
New restrictions at major airports, including Mumbai and Chennai, forced airlines to scramble late on Sunday to revise schedulesThe confusion will make it even harder for airlines to recover from the impact of a two-month lockdown
PremiumDue to last-minute uncertainty over state govts policy decisions on the opening of the major airports, airlines' plan to resume flight operations Monday has met with chaos and cancellations.
Around 80 arrival and departure flights from Delhi's Indira Gandhi International airport have been cancelled. Bengaluru's Kempegowda International airport saw nine flights cancellations till 9am. Five flights have been cancelled from Bhubaneswar's Biju Patnaik International Airport.
Earlier flight schedule was made for all airports including West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chennai.
A passenger of a cancelled Air India's flight to Guwahati lamented the urgency of situation, he told ANI, "Airlines should not cancel flights at this time. It is really important for us to get to our destinations".
Passengers of an Air India Bengaluru-Hyderabad flight say their flight has been cancelled, without prior notice from the airline. They say,"Only when our boarding passes were scanned at the airport entry we were told that boarding has been cancelled.We don't know what to do now."
West Bengal govt had decided that it will resume flights from 28th May, likewise, Andhra Pradesh govt will start domestic flight operations from 26th May. Maharashtra has restricted flight movements to 25 takeoffs and 25 landings every day. Mumbai airport is India's second busiest airport. Tamil Nadu govt has restricted the number of incoming flights to Chennai at 25.
The re-commencement of services comes a day after massive spike in ticket cancellations, along with a drop in bookings, was reported by the aviation industry for Monday's flights as several states had moved to limit air operations.
According to Reuters, IndiGo had planned to start with about 430 daily flights, SpiceJet had planned to operate 204 flights a day and AirAsia India would start with 77 flights.
The final number could be much lower as some states, especially where coronavirus cases are rising, have curtailed air travel following relaxations that last Thursday allowed some domestic operations to resume.
With agencies inputs
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This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
