'Two days at airport and no one to help': Passengers vent after IndiGo cancels all flights from Delhi
NEW DELHI: Agitated passengers thronged IndiGo counters across the three terminals of Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) on Friday after the airline announced the cancellation of all its 235 domestic flights from the city. The airline, with a 64.1 percent market share, cancelled over 1,000 flights across the country on Friday leading to chaos at airports nationwide.
By afternoon, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which takes care of airport security, denied entry inside the terminals to any passenger holding an IndiGo flight ticket.
"The CISF has brought in its entire platoon of reserve personnel to manage the situation. Leaves of all CISF cops have also been cancelled," said a source. Many were spotted near the staff to offer them security.
The airline has been asked to open more counters and deploy more manpower across the airports to tend to passenger queries, he added.
Additional police staff from the IGIA police station were also brought to the terminals to keep everything under control, said a police source.
While Terminal 1 operates roughly 150 flights, T2 operates 50 and T3 the rest. The cancellation was abruptly announced for a 24-hour period from 12 midnight until 11.59 pm on Friday despite IndiGo announcing a day earlier that it would curtail flight operations from December 8.
The worst affected were transit passengers who had reached Delhi on their way to other cities but were stuck inside the terminal.
Jahangir Sheikh and 14 others, natives of West Bengal who are employed in Jeddah, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, reached here on Thursday afternoon and were still at the airport until late Friday evening pleading for a flight with IndiGo staff.
"We get a long leave to visit our families once every two years. Two days have been spent at the airport now and IndiGo says they will be able to help us only on December 8," Sheikh told this reporter. "Imagine sitting in an airport building instead of being with your family. No one in IndiGo is helping us here," he charged.
A 22-strong group comprising a few parents, teachers and 12 boys who were on the way from Punjab to Vishakapatnam to take part in a national tournament were stuck at the airport for nearly 12 hours on Friday.
Teacher Nidhi Nandwana said, "We had to be at Vishakapatnam for the five-day hockey tournament starting today. We reached Delhi at 7 am and learnt all flights have been cancelled today. The boys are very upset as they are the best in Punjab and selected across schools. We have pleaded with the organizers to give us time till tomorrow to reach. But staff are saying no alternative flights can be arranged today or tomorrow."
"Passengers are upset and angry. They are raising slogans against the airline in frustration," an airport official said.
A large number of passengers were also desperately crowding counters of Air India, Air India Express and SpiceJet to see if they could get tickets there.
Passengers from arriving flights were stuck too as they could not get their baggage. "The baggage of hundreds is stuck and they want to collect them before leaving," the official said. Even the baggage from cancelled flights checked in already needs to be retrieved, he added.
Meanwhile, in view of disruption of flight services of Indigo, the Northern Railway said it has augmented coaches in four pairs of trains for the benefit of passengers - one 3A coach in Jammu Tawi Rajdhani Express (Train no 12425/26) one 3A coach in New Delhi-Dibrugarh (12424/23), one Chair Car in New Dekhi-Chandigarh Shatabdi (12045/46), and one CC coach in Amritsar-Delhi shatabdi 12030/29.
The release added that it was planning on more such initiatives.