IN THE AIR, AFTER TWO MONTHS
Tension and happiness marked the experience of flyers at airports across India even as there were confusions about last-minute change in flight schedules
MUMBAI
At Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, 47 flights operated (arrival and departure) on Day 1 as seven airlines catered to 14 sectors. The first flight departed to Patna at 6:45am, and a Lucknow flight was the first arrival at 8:20am. Both were operated by Indigo. A section of passengers said there was chaos and confusion due to last-minute changes in flight schedule
BENGALURU
The first flight out of the airport was an Air Asia aircraft to Ranchi that departed at around 5:15 am, while the first arrival was an Indigo flight from Chennai at about 7:35 am with around 113 passengers.some passengers claimed that flights were cancelled at the last moment
HYDERABAD
The number of flights at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport was curtailed to around 10% of normal days. At 8.06 am, a Truejet 2T623 flight with 12 passengers onboard, took off from the RGIA to Vidyanagara in Karnataka. A few minutes later, at 8.20 am, the second flight of the day, an Air Asia 15 1576 flight, touched down with 104 passengers from Bengaluru
BHOPAL
The airport resumed operations with a private airline flight landing from Delhi with 122 passengers and then taking off with 69 people on board
PATNA
Airport authorities said they reported 1,570 incoming passengers and 789 outgoing passengers on the first day. The civil aviation resulator, however, has approved 17 daily flight departures from Patna airport