Passengers crowd in front of a counter following cancellation of IndiGo flights in Bengaluru, on Friday.
Credit: DH PHOTO/PUSHKAR V
Bengaluru: Frustrated and clueless passengers swarmed Terminal 1 of Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport on Friday as IndiGo flight cancellations stretched into the fourth day.
India’s largest airline cancelled a total of 292 flights at the city airport as of 7 pm, Friday, including 125 arrivals and 167 departures. Only 38 IndiGo flights took off from the airport on Friday evening.
IndiGo cancelled all flights from Bengaluru to Delhi and Mumbai until midnight.
Around 4 pm, security staff at the departure gates began asking IndiGo passengers to return home, claiming “all IndiGo flights have been cancelled for the next three to five days”.
“When we questioned the security about the cancellations, one of the guards said that as IndiGO passengers were causing a ruckus inside, they had decided not to allow any more passengers,” said an Ahmedabad-bound passenger.
While an IndiGo representative claimed that no such announcements had been made for the Bengaluru airport, an airport source stated that the cancellations mainly impacted passengers travelling to Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune.
Many passengers raised complaints about the last-minute cancellations after receiving no prior intimation from the airline.
A passenger flying to New Delhi was seen having a heated argument with the IndiGo ground staff about the lack of communication.
“They’re saying that due to the sheer lack of cancellations, some cancellation messages might not have gone through. But what’s amusing is that they’re sending me messages if I enjoyed my flight. And this was for my flight they cancelled yesterday. My flight today was again cancelled. I slept at the airport last night,” he told DH.
Similar arguments took place throughout the day, as passengers grew impatient — many having spent over 48 hours at the airport without their luggage The growing queue for a refund added to the chaos.
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an Ahmedabad-bound passenger
“When we questioned the security about the cancellations one of the guards said that as IndiGO passengers were causing a ruckus inside they had decided not to allow any more passengers.