BENGALURU: It was a frustrating Sunday morning for 169 passengers heading to Bengaluru on a GoAir flight from Nagpur as their plane could not take off for over three hours due to technical problems.
They finally arrived in Bengaluru on a different aircraft. The lack of proper information and the absence of refreshments left many of them irritated.
Technical glitches have been cited as the reason for the delay of the Airbus A320 neo aircraft, which is notorious for repeated engine problems.
Passengers onboard G8-811, rescheduled to take off at 8.30 am (due to a pre-announced delay from 6 am intimated to flyers a day earlier) finally left Nagpur at 11.41 am on a different aircraft after their flight failed to take off during one attempt.
Their aircraft made an attempt to start at 10.20 am but encircled the runway and returned to the bay. Passengers were later shifted to another aircraft and the flight took off 80 minutes later.
A GoAir spokesperson attributed the delay to “technical glitches.” Due to repeated problems occurring in the engines of the A320 neo aircraft, the Director-General of Civil Aviation had given airlines time till January 31 to replace them.
Passengers took to social media to vent their ire against the alleged lack of correct information from GoAir about the exact time of take-off and the absence of refreshments.
One Shrey Bhatia tweeted. “Staff never told the exact timings for G8-811 takeoff and were saying will start boarding in 15 minutes from 8:30 AM and actually started boarding at 10:10 AM Btw flight was to take off at 6 am. Even an autowallah provides better service (sic).”
Chanchal, a startup enthusiast put out this tweet: Thanks @goairlinesindia 4ruiningmy sunday. stranded in
nagpur airport for more than 5 hours. No update on flight no. G8-811. What a service?? I would be more careful opting ur services in the future. God save you (sic).”
Deepak tweeted: “No apologies, no courtesy checking with passengers or kids if they are hungry! #worst #worstservice” (sic).
He pointed out that many elderly people with diabetes and hungry kids were around.