CREWLESS GOAIR FORCES FLIERS TO WAIT AT DELHI AIRPORT.
Airline also blamed weather, runway maintenance at destinations
NEW DELHI: Hundreds of flyers were left stranded for hours at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport on Monday morning when at least 10 flights of Goair, scheduled to depart between 2 am and 10 am, were delayed, allegedly due to the unavailability of cockpit crew.
The airline, however, said that apart from the unavailability of the crew, adverse weather conditions and runway maintenance at destination airports added to the delay ranging between 30 minutes and five hours.
The flights affected from Delhi airport were G82501 to Mumbai, G8143 to Ranchi, G8425 to Hyderabad, G8113 to Bengaluru, G8719 to Ahmedabad, G8615 to Nagpur, G8173 to Pune, G8108 to Chandigarh, G8211 to Lucknow and G8227 to Srinagar.
According to airport officials, while updating other stakeholders, including air traffic control, about the delay in the flights, the airline mentioned unavailability of cockpit crew as one of the major reasons.
But in a statement, Goair said a combination of factors such as inclement weather, low-visibility conditions and runway maintenance in certain parts of the country resulted in the consequential delay.
“This was further aggravated with flight duty time limitations (FDTL) of the crew. All the passengers have been taken care of and served refreshments. The airline has initiated all possible steps to minimise inconvenience to the passengers. Goair sincerely regrets the inconvenience caused to its passengers,” a Goair spokesperson said.
Many flyers took to social media and posted videos and pictures of the crowded terminals. While most complained about not being updated by the airline about the delay in time, some said airline the crew was not being supportive. One such post on Twitter read, “We are stuck at Delhi airport. Delhi Ranchi flight at 5.45 getting delayed every half an hour. Latest is 9.30 am. Airlines lost lost control over its operation [sic]”
In response to another similar tweet, the airline said, “We hear you and apologise for the delay that you’ve experienced. We work hard to run an on-time airline; however, unforeseen events sometimes challenge us. Kindly share your PNR, email ID and contact number via DM so we can assist you better.” (sic)