125 flights cancelled so far this month

If you are planning to fly to a non-metro city like Indore, Bhopal or Nagpur, it would be good idea to also book a train ticket as back up, reports Sidhartha Roy.

If you are planning to fly to a non-metro city like Indore, Bhopal or Nagpur, it would be good idea to also book a train ticket as back up.

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Due to a dip in air traffic, airlines are regularly cancelling flights and passengers are getting stranded at airports despite booking air tickets at prohibitive prices.

After Jet Airways cancelled its morning Delhi-Indore flight on Monday, passengers were stranded at the Delhi airport.

“They said there is no load and so they are cancelling it. Though they offered to refund the amount or rebook us in the next flight in evening, what is the point of spending so much on a air ticket when you have to waste 12 hours waiting at the airport?” said Rajiv Baruah, a resident of Mhow, near Indore.

The flight was scheduled to depart at 7.40 am but passengers could only leave by the 6.10 pm flight, Baruah said.

“The morning flight was cancelled because there were too few passengers but we combined it with our evening Delhi-Indore-Bhopal flight and all passengers were sent,” said a Jet Airways spokesman.

While usually 60 flights are normally cancelled every month at the Delhi airport due to different reasons, the number is as high as 125 in October.

“While cancellation of flights was very common for low cost carriers earlier, even full cost carriers are doing it now due to recession,” said Mohit Srivastava, head of online sales of travel portal www.makemytrip.com.

“While one can anticipate traffic for busy routes like Delhi-Mumbai, traffic flow to and from smaller town has come down drastically. Cancellation of flights by even full cost airlines are becoming regular,” said an aviation expert who did not wish to be named.

Meanwhile, Air India said it would begin operating a daily flight linking Amritsar with Nanded from October 29 till November 4.