Air passengers face trouble once again. Services are disrupted at Delhi, Srinagar, and Kolkata airports for various reasons. Flights were cancelled due to weather conditions in some places, departures were delayed elsewhere, and passengers faced problems receiving their luggage at destinations due to conveyor belt issues.
Due to dense fog and extremely reduced visibility, the schedule at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport was thrown into chaos again on Sunday. From morning onwards, the entire airport premises were shrouded in a thick blanket of fog. As a result, at least 97 flights were cancelled.
Among these, 48 aircraft were scheduled to land at Delhi airport. And 49 departing flights were supposed to take off. Needless to say, the cancellation of so many flights caused problems for many passengers.
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According to the flight tracking website 'Flightradar24', alongside the cancellation of so many flights, more than 200 aircraft departed late from Delhi airport on this day. On average, each aircraft took off 23 minutes later than scheduled. However,
Delhi airport authorities claim the situation is generally normal. But passengers have claimed that the ground reality tells a different story.
Around 1,300 aircraft take off and land at Delhi airport daily. With nearly 100 flights cancelled and over 200 aircraft delayed in departure, passengers faced extreme hardship on this day.
The situation reminded many of the unprecedented paralysis that had occurred in Indian skies at the beginning of this month.
Alongside Delhi, bad weather also affected flight services in Srinagar. Here, 11 flights were cancelled on this day due to snowfall and rain.
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Authorities were forced to cancel two more flights bound for Srinagar due to bad weather in Jammu and Delhi. It has been reported that flight services are unlikely to normalise until the weather clears.
Meanwhile, problems had emerged on Saturday with the conveyor belt system at Kolkata airport's C terminal. This system is operated by IndiGo.
Passengers' checked luggage is supposed to reach the aircraft's cargo area directly through the conveyor belt. With the conveyor belt malfunctioning, airport workers were seen carrying luggage by hand. Due to this, aircraft could not take off on time in many cases.
On Sunday, the C portal's services were transferred to the AB portal. But new problems have reportedly emerged at this terminal as well. In many cases, passengers have complained that they did not receive their luggage after reaching their destinations.
