Fog, complaints sweep IGIA

She had planned to be in Amsterdam by Monday evening, but Nidhi Chawla’s tryst with fog lasted longer than expected. Although she had expected to spend three hours at the IGI Airport before take-off, the nightmare continued for 16 hours. Mallica Joshi reports.

She had planned to be in Amsterdam by Monday evening, but Nidhi Chawla’s tryst with fog lasted longer than expected. Although she had expected to spend three hours at the IGI Airport before take-off, the nightmare continued for 16 hours.

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Nidhi and her husband had to take a connecting flight to America from Amsterdam but missed it as the KLM Royal Dutch Airline flight was delayed.

The newly married couple was supposed to leave for Amsterdam on the 1:15am flight on Monday. “We reached the airport at 11pm on Sunday and have been waiting for the flight to take-off since then. My husband has to join work on Tuesday, but won’t be able to do so now. According to a screen at the airport, the flight is delayed by 16 hours,” she said.

But the delay is not what bothers Chawla. Neither is it the lack of proper accommodation.

“There is no information available at all. There is no representation from our airline. We got a number but there is no response from there either. One can understand the delay due to fog but why can there be no information system?” she asked.

Aman Jha, an entrepreneur who had to take a flight to Bagdogra, West Bengal on Monday morning, left his home in Rohini at 6am. “I left early in the morning to reach the IGI airport to catch the 10.15 Spicejet flight. I had called before leaving to know about the status, but no one answered the phone at the flight helpdesk. When I reached, I realised the flight was delayed by more than four hours,” he said.

Many whose flights were cancelled were jostling to get tickets for the next flight. “We had come to attend a wedding but were stranded. The bride and the groom have to go back to Cochin with us. I hope we get tickets in the next flight,” said SJ Sait, whose Jet Airways flight was cancelled.