Roney Antony & John Wilbert
Port Blair, Jun 14: The Chartered flight in Port Blair – Kolkata and Kolkata – Port Blair sector scheduled on Thursday night was cancelled due to heavy rainfall and winds at Port Blair, it is learnt.
The passengers travelling from Kolkata to Port Blair were made to wait for 2 nearly hours after boarding in Air India flight but later all passengers were de-boarded from the fight saying the flight has been cancelled due to bad weather at Port Blair.
“Cancellation of flight in Andaman sector is not a new issue but the way Air India staffs handled the situation this time was completely unprofessional,” complained a passenger.
Passengers complained that there was no one to inform them about the right status of fight. “We have been asked to come next day and they refused us to provide any sort of accommodation despite of the fact that boarding passes were issued to passengers. Many had to stay at Airport for nearly 24 hours as they did not have any alternative arrangements for boarding,” said another passenger.
At Port Blair airport passengers were angry also because inside airport they did not have any proper stalls to buy food.
Passengers also expressed disappointment over the way Air India delayed in taking decision about informing about the exact timing of next flight. Earlier also Air India had dealt with passenger in same manner, when the Chartered flight was cancelled.
Meanwhile it is learnt that today at around 9.30 pm a flight was arranged for started passengers of Kolkata and Port Blair. Till last reported poured in the flight took off from Kolkata.
It is also learnt that yesterday Vistara and GoAir flights also could not land at Port Blair due to poor visibility and heavy rain and had to return back. Another Air India Flight AI 551 was not able to land at Port Blair due to bad weather in morning hours and it was later diverted towards Phuket and at around 6.00 PM the flight came back and landed at Port Blair.
