By IANS,
New Delhi : Stranded for hours at the swanky T3 terminal in the national capital, 12-year-old Anu Iyer was visibly upset. She was all set to take off for a vacation to Bangalore but her plane was among the 53 Air India flights cancelled Thursday as a strike by pilots entered its second day.
“The flight in which we were to travel was cancelled due to the pilots’ strike. We have no other option but to go to the Air India office to know whether they have made any alternative arrangement for us,” Anu’s father Bharat Iyer, a Delhi resident, told IANS.
Like the Iyers, who are a family of four, hundreds of passengers saw their plans being thrown out of gear Thursday as 53 flights from across the country, mainly out of Delhi and Mumbai, were grounded.
Some 50 flights were either cancelled or re-scheduled the day earlier when around 600 pilots of the erstwhile Indian Airlines, now co-opted into Air India, struck work.
Haritha Rao, a human resource manager whose engagement is to take place Friday, said her flight to Hyderabad was cancelled.
“My flight to Hyderabad was cancelled, they first said they will be booking another flight on 5.30 p.m. but they were not sure. I had no option but to pay the last minute fare for another airline as it is my engagement and I need to be there. It is better they close this airline, which cannot serve the passengers,” Rao told IANS.
Thursday also saw the cancellation of some international flights, including those from the capital to Kathmandu, Kabul and Dubai. Chaotic scenes were witnessed, particularly at terminals in Delhi and Mumbai, as passengers frantically sought alternatives.
Hundreds of passengers from Mumbai bound for destinations like Nagpur, Chennai, New Delhi and other places were compelled to cancel their travel plans.
At Delhi’s T3 terminal from where Air India flights operate, many waited to know whether they would be accommodated on other flights.
“I can understand the management’s dilemma. But why should I be informed just the last moment that my flight is cancelled? I could have made some alternative arrangements,” Sandeep Goyal, a passenger bound for Mumbai, said in the capital.
“Now the private carriers are taking advantage of the situation. A ticket that should cost around Rs.6,600 at the last moment is now being sold for Rs.8,800. I had booked days in advance. Even with full refund, my loss is much more,” Goyal told IANS.
Atul Bharghav, who was headed for Bhopal, said, “We were told that everyone going to Bhopal must stand aside, as the flight has been cancelled.”
Bharghav also fumed that he was given no information about the cancellation of flight or any alternate arrangement by the airlines. “When I reached the airport I was told that my flight had been cancelled,” he added.
The pilots’ strike was called Tuesday midnight and entered the second day in defiance of a stay ordered by the Delhi High Court.
The pilots of the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), once on the payroll of erstwhile Indian Airlines, are demanding parity in pay with their counterparts in Air India and other issues related to work conditions.
They have also demanded that the airline reinstate the six pilots who were sacked and two others who were suspended Wednesday, and want the union to be recognised again and its offices de-sealed.