Flights cancelled, air travel may dip

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Mumbai: Following the terror attacks in Mumbai, several domestic airlines had to cancel their flights on Friday due to unavailability of passengers. As per the details given by the Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), which runs the Mumbai airport (domestic and international), low cost carrier GoAir had to cancel four arrivals and four departures. Delhi-based Indigo cancelled one departure and one arrival from the Mumbai airport. Kingfisher Airlines had to suspend one arrival and two departures. Domestic airlines had clubbed or cancelled flights on specific sectors, as a number of passengers did not turn up for their flights on Friday.

Meanwhile, Delhi-based SpiceJet issued a statement on Thursday evening stating that their flight operations were not impacted by the unfortunate incidents in Mumbai. “We are offering all passengers who have missed their flights or chosen not to take them from Mumbai, to Mumbai or via Mumbai, a choice of either rescheduling their flights or total refund or creating a credit shell with us. No change fee will apply on any of these transactions. In view of the current situation, we have also beefed up security at all the stations across our network,” said Sanjay Aggarwal, the airline’s CEO.

However, aviation analysts predict that following the terror attacks in Mumbai, business and leisure travel will dip at least 25-30% in the coming days. Higher airfares have already played havoc in the minds of travellers and now with this insecurity in mind, no foreigner or even a domestic traveller would venture into a new city for business or leisure purposes. The Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) has also beefed up security measures to ensure the safety of the passengers. Apart from security being tightened, there is police curfew near the airport to check all vehicles passing by. The security, air traffic control (ATC), customs and immigration which are handled by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), have ensured security in and around the Mumbai airport.

Meanwhile, even as the financial crisis in the aviation sector has taken a heavy toll on the passenger traffic growth rate in India, the global body of airlines, IATA, has warned that the worst was yet to come, news agencies said on Friday.