PATNA: Life has gone haywire due to chilly weather and dense fog prevailing in the city and forcing the airlines to cancel ten flights to and from Patna while several incoming and outgoing flights were delayed by hours at the Jayaprakash Narayan International Airport on Monday. The approach visibility on the runway was below 300 metres at the airport in the morning hours.
The officials at the airport said air traffic remained disrupted due to low visibility, which makes it difficult for the flights to either land or take off.
Among the flights cancelled, nine belonged to IndiGo and one Hyderabad-bound SG-322 of SpiceJet. Two Delhi-Patna flights (6E- 2769 and 6E- 2482), besides two each for Hyderabad (6E-6719 and 6E-6223) and Bengaluru (6E-6451 and 6E-255) and one each for Deoghar (6E-7944), Ranchi (6E- 925) and Mumbai (6E-5173) of IndiGo were cancelled.
The cancellation and the delay created a chaotic situation at the terminal building and caused inconvenience to the passengers, especially for those from outside Patna, while the rush at the airlines counters was unmanageable.
One Manoj Kumar, who works in Bengaluru, said, “This is totally dictatorial approach. We were waiting and there was no bad weather at Patna. Still the airline cancelled the flight.”
Some of the flyers vent their ire over space constraint and inadequate facilities at the airport. A flyer shared a picture of packed security hold area and wrote on X: “Why not informing people in advance for flight delays when you don’t have place to sit on Patna airport (sic).”
Utpal Upadhya, whose wife was stranded, said: “My wife is in Patna. She was to return to Vadodara by a connecting flight on January 14. However, the flight got cancelled. She rescheduled the flights three times but all of them were cancelled. The airlines don’t care for the stranded passengers.”
The officials at the airport said air traffic remained disrupted due to low visibility, which makes it difficult for the flights to either land or take off.
Among the flights cancelled, nine belonged to IndiGo and one Hyderabad-bound SG-322 of SpiceJet. Two Delhi-Patna flights (6E- 2769 and 6E- 2482), besides two each for Hyderabad (6E-6719 and 6E-6223) and Bengaluru (6E-6451 and 6E-255) and one each for Deoghar (6E-7944), Ranchi (6E- 925) and Mumbai (6E-5173) of IndiGo were cancelled.
The cancellation and the delay created a chaotic situation at the terminal building and caused inconvenience to the passengers, especially for those from outside Patna, while the rush at the airlines counters was unmanageable.
One Manoj Kumar, who works in Bengaluru, said, “This is totally dictatorial approach. We were waiting and there was no bad weather at Patna. Still the airline cancelled the flight.”
Some of the flyers vent their ire over space constraint and inadequate facilities at the airport. A flyer shared a picture of packed security hold area and wrote on X: “Why not informing people in advance for flight delays when you don’t have place to sit on Patna airport (sic).”
Utpal Upadhya, whose wife was stranded, said: “My wife is in Patna. She was to return to Vadodara by a connecting flight on January 14. However, the flight got cancelled. She rescheduled the flights three times but all of them were cancelled. The airlines don’t care for the stranded passengers.”