Stranded IndiGo passengers at Raipur airport fume over cancellations, lack of communication

Raipur, Dec 5 (PTI) Angry passengers confronted and shouted at IndiGo airline staff at Swami Vivekananda Airport on Friday after several of the carrier's flights were abruptly cancelled or rescheduled.

Standing outside the airport for hours and desperate for some information from the airline, the frustrated passengers looked for senior IndiGo staff members since those on the counter failed to explain things satisfactorily.

"I have been standing here for two hours. Call the concerned person, let us go inside. We are standing here like fools!" shouted an irate passenger, reflecting the mass mood of stranded people.

Even the airport officials did not respond to messages and calls seeking details of cancellations.

There was no clear communication from the airline, some passengers claimed, adding that they were shocked to find their morning flights rescheduled to late night with no guarantee that even then flights would be operated.

Arun Kumar Patra, an Odisha resident, told PTI Videos that he had booked a December 4 flight from Raipur to Delhi which was to depart at 10 pm.

"I arrived here on Thursday evening from Odisha at around 5 pm, and only then I came to know it had been cancelled. I did not have the option of going anywhere else because I had already landed here," he said.

From Delhi, he was to board an international flight on Friday, Patra added.

"IndiGo rescheduled my flight to 2 pm on Friday, so I extended my international flight to the morning of December 6. But this IndiGo flight too has been cancelled now, so I don't know how I will even reach Delhi. Even a train won't get me there on time," he said.

Even if he found a place on a flight on Saturday, he was not sure if it would not be cancelled, he said, claiming that no one on the airline's side was responding. "They themselves don't know which flight will operate," Patra said.

Another passenger from Odisha described an even longer ordeal.

"My flight from Jharsuguda (in Odisha) to Delhi was at 5.45 pm on Thursday. I waited from 5 pm (Thursday) to 5 am (Friday), for 12 hours, and then they said it has been cancelled. They asked us to take a flight from Raipur instead. I took a cab and reached Raipur, but now they are telling me this flight too has been cancelled," he said.

"They themselves have no idea what is going on," the passenger added.

A woman whose Raipur-Indore flight was cancelled said the biggest problem was the extremely short notice.

"They inform us only six hours before the flight is cancelled. We don't get time to find alternatives. That is causing even more inconvenience," she said.

The airline was cancelling "almost every flight" without offering any meaningful support, the woman claimed.

"They don't even answer calls. They only say 'sorry' but they are not compensating. They just asked us to cancel the ticket," she said.

Another passenger said his morning flight was rescheduled to night. "Now we are not even sure if the night flight will take off or get cancelled again," he said, showing the updated schedule on his phone.

Visuals from Bilaspur airport in Chhattisgarh showed a number of passengers shouting slogans against the airline.

IndiGo has said that 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. PTI TKP SKL KRK