Domestic flights resume after two months; many say flights cancelled without notice

New Delhi, May 25: Domestic passenger flights resumed in India after a gap of two months. However, passengers of Air India Bengaluru-Hyderabad flight were left stranded at Kempegowda International airport as the airline cancelled the flight without giving any prior notice.

Domestic flights resume, but chaos at Delhi airport as some flights cancelled | Oneindia News

"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," a stranded passenger narrated the story.

New Delhi and Bengaluru registered several cancellations as domestic flights took to the skies after a gap of two months on Monday.

Of the approximately 380 flights that were scheduled for today in the national capital, 82 (both departures and arrivals) were already cancelled by afternoon. As many as 20 flights were also called off in Bengaluru.

The Delhi airport saw its first departure at 4.45 am to Pune while Mumbai airport's first departure was at 6.45 am to Patna, the officials said. Scheduled commercial passenger flights were suspended on March 25, when the Centre imposed a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

International scheduled commercial passenger flights remain suspended. The first passenger flight from Delhi airport IndiGo 6E643 departed for Pune, while the first domestic passenger flight to arrive at Delhi on Monday was from Ahmedabad and it was of SpiceJet, the officials said.

The Mumbai airport's operator MIAL said in a statement: "The first flight departing out of CSMIA (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport ) will be to Patna at 6:45hrs and flight arriving from Lucknow will be the first arrival flight at 8:20hrs both operated by IndiGo."

It was announced last Thursday that one-third of pre-lockdown domestic flights will operate from Monday.