Air India and Kingfisher Airlines passengers faced harrowing times across the country on Thursday with both airlines cancelling scheduled flights.
Domestic passengers on other airlines also paid the price, as the schedule disruptions sent airfares surging. Travel agents claimed that the cutback in services by the two airlines has seen a sharp increase in airfares.
“Travel agents are now offering a Mumbai-Srinagar return ticket at Rs 40,000. For that price two people can enjoy a three-day trip to Thailand. In addition, fares on some European routes vacated by Air India and Kingfisher have also gone up ,” a leading north Indian travel agent said.
“The situation is particularly bad as it is the peak travel season now. Travellers are now not left with many choices as most other carriers are almost 98 per cent full,” said Mr Iqbal Mulla, President, Travel Agents' Association of India.
Severe Disruption
Air India cancelled eight international flights, including five from Delhi and three from Mumbai. In addition, six domestic flights, which would have continued as international flights were also cancelled. Operations of the airline's low cost arm, Air India Express, also saw disruptions with six flights being cancelled.
What compounded the misery of the passengers was that Kingfisher Airlines cancelled close to 15 domestic flights from Delhi and one from Mumbai. Kingfisher operates about 110 daily flights.
Passengers flying other airlines are also feeling the impact of the disruption of regular flights by Air India and Kingfisher.
The AI services cancelled from Delhi were flights to Chicago, Frankfurt, Shanghai, Paris and Toronto. Passengers from Mumbai booked to travel to Jeddah, Riyadh and Newark were also left stranded. Air India operates about 350 daily flights including 32 international flights.
Speaking to newspersons in Parliament, the Civil Aviation Minister, Mr Ajit Singh said that the long haul operations of Air India will remain affected for some more time.
Air India retaliated by sacking nine more agitating pilots, taking the total to 45 since the agitation began four days back. The airline management also moved the Delhi High Court seeking contempt of court proceedings against the agitating pilots.
On Wednesday, the Court had asked the pilots not to disrupt normal services of the airline. Sections of Air India pilots are agitating against the AI management's decision on training of pilots to operate the Boeing 787 aircraft.
The national carrier has also stopped taking passenger bookings for West-bound flights till May 15. The airline has given the option to passengers to postpone, advance or cancel their tickets for travel up to May 14 without having to pay any additional charges.
This was of little solace to scores of passengers booked on flights of the two airlines. Although Air India claimed stranded passengers were being provided hotel accommodation, being put on other airlines and being re-routed through different cities to reach their final destination, passengers claimed that these instances were few and far between.