Flight Fiasco: Srinagar Airport hit again as Monday’s all 8 IndiGo flights cancelled

Srinagar, Dec 8: Just a day after Srinagar International Airport saw partial resumption of IndiGo flights, with eight out of its 11 flights operating on Sunday, all eight flights of this airline scheduled to operate in the summer capital of J&K on Monday were cancelled owing to operational disruptions faced by the low-cost carrier.

A Srinagar Airport spokesperson said the total number of scheduled flights for Srinagar on Monday were 32, of which eight flights were of IndiGo, which were cancelled by the airline on Sunday night itself.

Thousands of IndiGo flights across the country have been cancelled during the last week after its pilots did not turn up for duty due to issues in the roster system, leaving passengers stranded.  Monday was the third day of air traffic being hit at the Srinagar Airport, while flight disruptions across the country have been witnessed since last week.

Aggrieved passengers said their travel plans had been badly hit.

“I had booked a connecting IndiGo flight from Srinagar to Delhi today, but I received a message from the airline on Sunday night saying the flight had been cancelled. I was offered rescheduling, but would now prefer to travel once this fiasco is over,” said Hamid Ahmed, a flyer.

The cancellation of IndiGo flights has led to skyrocketing airfares, with a one-way Srinagar-Delhi flight costing between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000.

The Jammu Kashmir Association of Hajj and Umrah Companies ( JHAHUC) on Monday held a news conference and said the IndiGo flight cancellations have till now not had a “major impact” on Umrah-related travel, as a limited number of groups of pilgrims were at present leaving for the holy pilgrimage.

However, President of the JKAHUC, Sheikh Feroz, said the trend seen for the last several years is that maximum people prefer travelling for Umrah only after mid-December.

He said that in case the IndiGo cancellations continue to occur next week onwards, “it will have a damaging effect on this year’s Umrah travel from Kashmir.”

“Most of the groups for Umrah leave after December 15, and if the IndiGo fiasco continues till then, it will be a huge problem. We also urge the people to cooperate with the travel agents in this time of distress,” Feroz said.

Commenting on the crisis caused by the disruption, Jammu Airport Director Devender Yadav, said eight IndiGo flights were cancelled at the airport while three flights of this airline operated. Providing statistics of Sunday’s travel, Yadav said the Jammu Airport saw eight IndiGo flights operate on December 7, of the scheduled 11 flights and recorded 1694 passenger arrivals and 1672 passenger departures.

Meanwhile, IndiGo issued a statement from its corporate office in Delhi, which said, “After the recent disruptions, IndiGo has recorded considerable and consistent improvement across the network. Today, we are all set to operate over 1800 flights, connecting all stations that we operate to. We have optimised our operations and managed to reduce the number of cancellations, which are being notified to customers in advance, and our on-time performance (OTP) has also improved to 91 percent across the network.”

Quoting the airline’s spokesperson, the statement said that across India, over 1800 flights operated on Monday, up from 1650 on Sunday.

“Ninety percent OTP across the entire network, up from 75 percent yesterday. Network coverage is fully restored. All cancellations in today’s schedule were executed yesterday, ensuring advance notifications were sent to customers,” it said.