As many as 42 IndiGo flights (21 arrivals and 21 departures) were cancelled on Friday and one from Nagpur to Pune was diverted to Hyderabad.
Many flyers stuck at the airport for hours said the airline did not offer them any meals, forcing them to buy food from the airport outlets at high rates. Coimbatore-borne Rajesh Ganeshan said his flight was supposed to take off at 4.30am on Thursday. “The airline announced at 7.30pm that it was cancelled, but said another aircraft would fly to Coimbatore at 3am on Friday. Until 1pm, there was no information about it either. The airline didn’t offer any food to us. The airport authorities should help and ask the outlets to temporarily reduce the price of food,” Ganeshan told TOI.
The Chennai flight of Vignesh R, scheduled to take off at 3.30am on Thursday, finally flew at 3pm on Friday. “Not even a bottle of water was offered to us by the airline. Nothing was offered on the flight too,” he said.When contacted, an IndiGo spokesperson shared a note from the airline in which it apologised to all flyers for the troubles.
Director Dhoke said airport operations were slowly returning to normal and five of its bays were still occupied by IndiGo aircraft. “All airport functions are operating without interruption and flight disruptions are now confined solely to IndiGo. All other airlines adhered to their planned schedules. A total of 31 flight arrivals and 31 departures were handled on Friday, facilitating 5,122 arriving passengers and 4,805 departing passengers. IndiGo operated seven arrivals and seven departures. All teams remained fully mobilised and the apron utilisation was continuously supervised,” he said.
Many flyers still complained about difficulties in getting back their luggage for cancelled flights. “I have been moving around the airport for hours but have not been able to find my bag,” a distraught flyer said.
Members of the Mass Movement Organisation staged a protest in front of the airport’s terminal building on Friday evening against the IndiGo fiasco, flyers’ problems and high airfares. Senior Congress member Mohan Joshi said the civil aviation ministry was not prepared for the situation.
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