INDORE: Pawan Mishra, a software engineer from
the city could not appear for an interview in Mumbai and lost a possible job as
his flight was cancelled at the last moment. Mishra is not the only one from
the city who has faced problem due to frequent cancellation of flights at the
last moment. There are many who are facing inconveniences due to it, more so
for last two weeks.
The biggest sufferers are international
travellers, people who have connecting flights and travellers who had booked
ticket months in advance to save few bucks.
I learnt about the cancellation
of flight only after arriving at the airport," said Mishra. The intimation
came at the eleventh hour and there was no way that I could have made an
alternate arrangement, he added.Prem Singh Chawla, an entrepreneur had to catch an international flight from Mumbai in the evening. For that he had booked a ticket on Indore-Mumbai flight that leaves in the afternoon, but he failed to catch international flight as the afternoon flight from Indore was cancelled at the last moment.
"I had to catch an international flight from Mumbai in the evening so I had booked a ticket in Indore-Mumbai Jet Konnect flight which was scheduled to take off from Indore at 1.40 pm. But when I reached the airport, I was informed that my flight has been cancelled and the next flight from Indore to Mumbai was at 8.40 pm. There was no way to reach Mumbai on time to catch my international flight, which I ultimately missed," said Chawla adding that he was not communicated in advance about the cancellation of flight.
Similarly Jacob Bimla and five of her associates who are working with a missionary organization in the city are facing inconvenience due to last minute cancellation of flight. Bimla told TOI that she had booked tickets for six people for the Cochin-Hyderabad-Indore sector three months back. Her flight was supposed to take off from Cochin at 8.25 am and reach Hyderabad at 10.45 am from where she had a flight for Indore at 12.05 pm.
"Now the airline has discontinued the afternoon flight for Hyderabad-Indore few days ago so I am forced to reschedule my travel and reach Indore via Mumbai. I have to reach Indore on October 8 and it will now cost me heavily to book ticket two days before the scheduled travel," said Bimla adding that now she will not be able to reach Indore in night and will not be able to attend the programme scheduled at 3 pm on Monday.
T K Jose of Jose Travels said that the cancellation of flights has caused great inconvenience to air travellers from Indore for the last fortnight.
"Flights are cancelled at the last moment leaving the passengers who have to take connecting flights stranded," said Jose adding that they also face problem in booking as they don't know whether there will be flights the next day or not.
Afternoon flights for Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad are being cancelled regularly. Main problem is with the flights of Jet Airwayswhich has maximum flights from Indore.
Sources in the industry said that flight cancellation in tier-two cities happens mainly because of discontinued operation of Kingfisher Airways. Airlines are shifting their flights from tier-two cities to profitable routes like connecting metro cities.
Tapan Kulkarni, station manager of Jet Airways
said on being inquired about the reason for frequent cancellation of flights
told TOI, "Flights are being cancelled due to operational reasons."
He however refused to elaborate on the operational reasons.
No comments:
Post a Comment