Cancellations continue, blame it on low passenger load factor

Officials said the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi handled around 277 flights on Tuesday, 100 short of its estimated figure.

NEW DELHI: While over 41,000 fliers reached their destinations on Tuesday, cancellation of flights continued for the second successive day since the resumption of domestic services across the country. Sources said while lots of flights operated at 50-60% of their capacity, much lower passenger load factor and the cap on flights by a few states were primarily responsible for the cancellation of flights.

Like Monday, there was needless confusion as many passengers learnt about their flight cancellation only upon reaching their airports. They shared their anger and despair on social media.As of 5 pm, airports had handled 325 departures and 283 arrivals with 41,673 passengers, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri said. The numbers are expected to scale up by midnight.

While the Delhi airport had over 25 cancellations, the figure was more than 20 at Bengaluru. Cancellations happened big time at major airports like Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad, where state governments have restricted the number of incoming flights.

Officials said the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi handled around 277 flights on Tuesday, 100 short of its estimated figure.On the plus side, Andhra Pradesh joined the flight resumption map. But Vijayawada and Vizag airports handled just eight flights each during the day.

The normally busy Chennai airport had only 20 pairs of arrivals and departures on Tuesday, as Tamil Nadu has taken a calibrated approach to the resumption of arrivals. Also, complaints on refunds of air tickets poured in.

Over 600 flights were cancelled on Monday and many on Tuesday leading to confusion among air-passengers about the refund of money spent on booking of tickets. Air-passengers vented their ire on social media platforms while complaining about ambiguity in refund process.

Air-passenger Karanbir Singh wrote, “What about cancellation of flights? Out of 10 flights 9 are cancelled. Even the airlines are not giving refund. We had earned money by doing hard work and not like by sitting like you all ministers. All are corrupts. Surely, airlines are giving you some share to keep you shut.”

Bengal cap on flights
While domestic flight services will resume in West Bengal from Thursday, its Kolkata and Bagdogra airports will handle only 20 flights per day