Hyderabad: Chaos continued at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) on Thursday as IndiGo Airlines cancelled 74 flights for the day.
For the third consecutive day, the airline cancelled several flights, causing severe inconvenience to thousands of passengers.
A total of 74 IndiGo flights have been cancelled for the day, an airport spokesman said. These include 37 arrivals and 37 departures.
With their travel plans disrupted due to delays and cancellations, passengers were seen stranded at the airport for several hours.
There were long questions outside and inside the terminal. Tempers were running high in the terminal building as angry passengers confronted the airline staff. Some were asking why the airline scheduled the flights when the staff was not available. Frustrated passengers had a heated argument with the staff and even raised slogans of “shame”.
Passengers complained that the airline officials were not available to answer their queries. One of the passengers said he and his wife had a flight to Mumbai scheduled for Friday morning, and the airline sent him rescheduled tickets to Saturday — and that too on different flights for him and his wife. He said all helplines of the airline were not functioning.
The passengers were also agitated over the lack of sufficient seating arrangements.
On December 2, IndiGo had cancelled 40 flights at Hyderabad. Nineteen departures and 21 arrivals were cancelled during the day.
According to airport sources, nine departures and five arrivals were cancelled on December 2
Departures and arrivals on key domestic routes like Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Visakhapatnam, Goa, Madurai, and Bhubaneswar left passengers stranded.
IndiGo attributed the disruption to ‘a multitude of unforeseen operational challenges’ including minor technology glitches, winter-season driven schedule changes, adverse weather, increased congestion in the aviation system and the implementation of updated Flight Duty Time Limitations for crew.
RGIA authorities have advised passengers to check the latest status of their flights with their respective airlines before heading to the airport.
“We are aware that a few flights at RGIA are experiencing delays and schedule changes due to operational reasons. Our teams at the airport are working closely with the Airlines to support their operations and assist passengers with timely information and guidance,” reads an advisory posted by RGIA on social media platforms.
(IANS)
