Goair cancels20flights across countryforseconddayinarow

Airline likely to cancel more flights till Sunday; DGCA pulls up carrier

MUMBAI: Low-cost carrier Goair on Tuesday cancelled 20 flights for the second consecutive day, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded again. The cancelled flights were from Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Srinagar, Nagpur, Pune, Lucknow, Patna, Ranchi Cochin and Port Blair.

Sources privy to the matter said that the airline has been facing crew-rostering issues, which will continue for the week and has planned cancellation of flights till Sunday. However, reports said that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has pulled up the airline for making its crew work over the prescribed flight duty time limit (FDTL). The FDTL limits the number of hours crew members are allowed to fly. However, when contacted, Arun Kumar, director-general of DGCA, refused to comment.

While the city-headquartered airline did not issue a press statement on Tuesday, on Monday it had said that the disruptions were a result of a combination of factors such as inclement weather, low visibility and anticitizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protests in parts of the country. The airline had also stated that apart from alternative flight arrangements, they had provided free cancellation and re-booking options to the affected passengers.

Irate passengers took to Twitter to complain of their poor experience with the airline. “…how is the estimate/reschedule working? It’s okay if it gets rescheduled once, but 3 times...not a good experience, and I would definitely avoid booking Goair for my travel from now on(sic),” tweeted a passenger.

Another tweet read, “Facing the worst travel experience with #Goair. Had my flight today at 10.50 in the morning. @goairlinesindia texts me at 7am that my flight is cancelled due to reasons

“beyond their control”. Have been calling the customer care since 1 hour, still no response.” The airline on Monday had cancelled 20 of its flights across the country over non-availability of aircraft and crew, affecting thousands of passengers.

Goair has reported a series of mid-air incidents of engine glitches, leading to the grounding

of planes with such engines.

On Monday, the airline was forced to ground an A320 plane, which had to land in Guwahati shortly after departing for Kolkata following the pilot detecting a “minor” technical problem.

On Sunday, Goair’s Chandigarh flight from Mumbai was diverted to the city due to a technical snag.