Low visibility in Delhi delays GoAir flight, passengers fume

Pune: A GoAir flight to Delhi was delayed by over four-and-a-half hours on Friday morning, leaving passengers fuming.

A GoAir spokesperson said, “The Pune-Delhi flight (G8 174) was delayed because of late arrival of the incoming flight. Some incoming flights were diverted to other stations for bad weather and low visibility in Delhi this (Friday) morning. The cascading effect of this delay affected the outbound flight to Pune and, in turn, the overall schedule. All passengers were cared for and the airport staffers kept passengers informed about developments from time to time. GoAir regrets the inconvenience caused to its passengers.”

GoAir’s same aircraft flies from Delhi to Pune (G8 173) and back (G8 174).

A woman booked on the incoming (Delhi-Pune) flight uploaded a 22-second video on Twitter showing passengers engaged in a heated argument with the airline’s staffers and a CISF jawan trying to pacify them at the Delhi airport. “Traumatic experience as flight to Pune delayed by over five hours; reason given is bad weather, but every other flight has already left. Refusing to give any ETA (estimated time of arrival) or any sort of compensation,” the flyer wrote.

The flight from Delhi to Pune (G8 173) was scheduled to take off at 8.35am, but it departed only by 2pm. With the incoming flight delayed, the same flight from Pune to Delhi (G8 174), which was supposed to take off at 11.15am, departed at 3:51pm.

“It was such a long wait considering that many of us had reached the (Pune) airport by 10am. This is what the airlines tend to do when there are no rights for the passengers. They don’t give you proper information and many a times, the staffers just disappear. While some situations are beyond control, giving proper information from time to time really helps, which is not the case,” another passenger pointed out.

Seven flights of different airlines, including three to Delhi, between 9am and noon were delayed. At least four flights to Delhi during the same period arrived late at the city airport. Between 6am and 9am, two flights to Delhi were delayed between 30 and 50 minutes.

The official of an airline in the city said flights from north and eastern India were expected to be delayed with the onset of winter. “The visibility becomes very poor and at times delays are unavoidable. Altogether, there are around 32 flights to Pune from Delhi as well as from cities like Chandigarh, Patna and Kolkata among others each day. With arrivals getting affected, it has a cascading effect on departures, too. Airlines generally keep passengers in the loop, but many a times the delays are sudden,” the official said.