The Indian government‘s to decision to allow air travel in the country saw utter confusion in the country’s airports, both major and minor, as a last minute decision by some states not to allow flights into their territories led to massive cancellations that left thousands of passengers stranded and fuming.
IndiGo, Vistara, Spicejet and Air India had been preparing to resume operations from Monday with about a third of their capacity amid strict rules, while GoAir was to start operations on June 1. But restrictions imposed late Sunday by state governments led to many cancellations.
The confusion will make it even harder for airlines to recover from the impact of a two-month lockdown to contain the novel coronavirus that has already cost hundreds of crores of rupees in lost revenue. According to the reports of news agency ANI, around 80 arrival/departure flights from Delhi’s IGI airport were cancelled, leaving passengers stranded at Terminal 3 of IGIA. At Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport and Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru in Bengaluru. Passengers of Air India Bengaluru-Hyderabad flight were left stranded at Kempegowda International airport as the airline cancelled the flight at last minute
”Our flight has been cancelled, without prior notice from the airline. 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”, flyers at Bengaluru airport told reporters. Several passengers were also stranded in Chennai as airlines cancelled tickets without any notice. “From March 15, we were stuck here in Tamil Nadu due to the lockdown. We booked three tickets for Mumbai last night but while reaching here, our flight tickets were cancelled and there is no one to answer us at the help desk. We don’t know what to do now,” Viswanathan, a passenger told ANI.
But passengers complained about some flights got cancelled without prior notice. A passenger at the airport said that her Air India flight to Delhi today has been cancelled without prior notice.
Earlier, after day-long negotiations on Sunday between several states and the central government, domestic flights resumed in India on Monday. After opposing resumption of flights amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Maharashtra state government late last night agreed to go along with the flight resumption, but only to a limited extent. All scheduled commercial passenger flights had been suspended since March 25 when the government imposed a nationwide lockdown to curb the coronavirus pandemic.
Hundreds eds of people reached the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi to take early morning flights to their home towns and workplaces. Those who took the first flights included paramilitary personnel, army men, students and migrants, who had been unable to book a ticket on the special trains being run by the Indian Railways.
Many said they shelled out more to reach the airport as there were limited public transport options available. With trains running full and inter-state buses off the roads, Sandeep Singh, 19, spent Rs 5,500 to reach Delhi from Dehradun where he studies. “I remained stuck in my PG. Mummy and papa were a worried lot. I am taking the first flight home,” he said.
A few people travelled long distances only to find that their flights had been cancelled.
Naik Satish Kumar’s Kolkata-bound flight got cancelled as the state decided not to resume operations till May 28.
It was agreed late Sunday night that would be limited operation of commercial domestic flights starting Monday to and from metro airports like Mumbai and Hyderabad. Maharashtra agreed to only 25 departures and arrivals each from Mumbai from Monday, which means a total of 50 flights. The Delhi-Mumbai route is the busiest in India.