GoFirst flight delays, cancellations lead to ruckus at airport

“On Wednesday evening, there was a delay in the incoming flights and due to this, the GoFirst passengers on the Mumbai-Bangalore route and Mumbai-Delhi route were affected. Hence, they staged a sit-down protest,” sources in the airport said.

Mumbai: Several GoFirst flights from Mumbai on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning were delayed or cancelled which led to passengers creating chaos at the airport’s Terminal 1.

As per the data from flightradar24.com – a real-time flight monitoring website – GoFirst flight G8 345 from Mumbai to Delhi was scheduled for departure on Wednesday at 10.30pm, but departed at 6.11am on Thursday. G8 325 Mumbai-Bengaluru flight was also scheduled to depart at 10.40pm on Wednesday but took off after an eight-hour delay at 6.05am on Thursday. (HT PHOTO)

“On Wednesday evening, there was a delay in the incoming flights and due to this, the GoFirst passengers on the Mumbai-Bangalore route and Mumbai-Delhi route were affected. Hence, they staged a sit-down protest,” sources in the airport said.

As per the data from flightradar24.com – a real-time flight monitoring website – GoFirst flight G8 345 from Mumbai to Delhi was scheduled for departure on Wednesday at 10.30pm, but departed at 6.11am on Thursday. G8 325 Mumbai-Bengaluru flight was also scheduled to depart at 10.40pm on Wednesday but took off after an eight-hour delay at 6.05am on Thursday.

Similar delays were seen for GoFirst flights on Thursday morning as well. The Mumbai-Leh flight scheduled for 4am departure left at 5.52am, while the Mumbai-Goa flight scheduled to leave at 5.05am departed at 7.02am. The Mumbai-Chandigarh flight slated to leave at 8.40am departed at 10.42am. At least three GoFirst flights including 6.20am departure for Nagpur, 7.10 am for Ahmedabad and 10.25am departure for Lucknow were cancelled.

Delays continued on Thursday night as well. Sandeep Sharma tweeted a photo of a GoFirst flight delayed by two hours. “Flight time 8:30pm. Delayed by more than 2.30 hrs, still no response at Terminal. Why it is delayed or when it is expected? Worst services. Every time reschedule the flight and further delays it. Time on screen is same but poor service.”

The deputy inspector general of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) didn’t comment on the matter. However, sources in CISF said, “Few incidents have happened in the last few days when flights were delayed and passengers had staged protests.”

Mumbai airport spokesperson did not comment on the issue.

Passengers also created a ruckus on Wednesday at Goa’s Dabolim airport when passengers of a Goa-Mumbai flight scheduled to depart at 2am were told that the flight had been cancelled. They had heated arguments with the airline staff and one of the passengers also said that he would ‘break the head’ of the GoFirst staff. Finally, another flight was arranged and it departed at 6.30am on Wednesday.

“The radome of the aircraft was damaged due to a bird hit during landing at Dabolim and some spare parts were flown in from Mumbai, the aircraft was repaired and declared serviceable,” a GoFirst spokesperson said regarding the Goa-Mumbai flight. The airline, however, refused to comment on the chaos at the Mumbai airport.