Over 100 flights cancelled at 4 major Gujarat airports; stranded passengers fly off the handle

Ahmedabad, Dec 5 (PTI) Frustration and anger were writ large on faces of stranded passengers as private carrier IndiGo cancelled over 100 flights scheduled for arrival and departure at four main airports in Gujarat - Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot - on Friday.

As the crisis at India's largest airline extended to the third day, chaos prevailed at airports with harried passengers venting their ire at the IndiGo management and indulging in slogan shouting.

As many as 86 6E IndiGo flights scheduled for arrival and departure from the Ahmedabad airport (50 departure and 36 arrival) were cancelled between 0001 IST and till 1600 IST on December 5, an airport official said.

He informed that nine flights of the airline scheduled for departure from Vadodara, eight from Rajkot and four from Surat were also cancelled, causing chaos at the airports as passengers scrambled to make alternative arrangements for the last minute changes in their travel itinerary.

The office of airport director at Vadodara said with a view to help stranded passengers, Air India is operating two additional flights on the Delhi-Vadodara-Delhi sector on Friday and Saturday.

IndiGo has said Friday should be the day with the highest number of cancellations as the airline is taking necessary steps to reboot its systems and schedules for progressive improvement.

"Short-term proactive cancellations are being made to ease operations, decongest the airports to prepare for starting stronger tomorrow," the airline said in a post on X.

Passengers stranded at the Vadodara airport claimed they were being kept in the dark regarding the rescheduling of flights. As the travellers faced massive inconvenience due to the last-minute cancellations, they vented their frustration at the airline by shouting slogans against the company.

A group of passengers waiting to fly to Bengaluru from Surat complained their morning flight was cancelled without assigning any reason and airline managers were not giving a clear answer regarding its rescheduling.

As passengers were forced to change their last minute travel plan, they expressed their anger by shouting slogans against IndiGo at the Ahmedabad airport. Some passengers said they were considering travelling to their destinations via trains or buses.

"We had booked tickets 20-25 days back. Looking at the prevailing situation, we reached at 5 in the morning when we received a message on mobile phone regarding cancellation. I am travelling with children and women members of the family, and we are all clueless. We selected the flight to save time, but our experience has been very poor," said an angry passenger at the Ahmedabad airport.

Another traveller said after facing repeated delays in his flight's departure from Ahmedabad to Varanasi since Thursday, he was finally assured a seat in an aircraft which was to take off on Friday.

"When we asked flight officials, they said it will depart late and even took our luggage, but it kept delaying," he said.

One Padmakant Shah informed that his newlywed son and daughter-in-law's plan to fly to Goa for a post-marriage vacation was affected due to flight cancellation.

Another passenger said he has to board an international flight from Mumbai on Saturday, but his flight to the country's financial capital from Ahmedabad was cancelled, putting him in a spot.

"I need to reach Mumbai today (Friday). I need to take the flight, but no responsible person is present here," he said at the Vadodara airport.

A passenger said she reached the Ahmedabad airport at 2 am after a long road journey only to learn her flight has been cancelled at the last minute.

She insisted that despite assurances no help was forthcoming from IndiGo officials. PTI KA PD RSY