The ongoing IndiGo flight disruption has impacted the travel plans of Junior Hockey World Cup players’ families, fans and even officials who are attending the event in Chennai and Madurai. Many of the visitors from abroad and within India have either cancelled their sightseeing plans or have shifted to road and rail travel because of widespread delays and cancellations.
Families forced to change travel plans
Kate, who travelled to Brisbane to support her son playing for Australia, stated to PTI that her long-listed plan to visit the Taj Mahal may now be cancelled because of uncertainty around air travel.
“We were planning to see the Taj Mahal, but with the IndiGo issues, we are a bit scared now,” she mentioned, adding that one family had already been stuck overnight because of cancellations.
For the very first time, 24 teams are participating in the tournament, which is being conducted from November 28 to December 10. Many of the overseas supporters, including NRIs, have come to India in order to attend the event. However, thousands of flights were cancelled last week after regulatory changes in pilot duty rules, leaving lakhs of passengers stranded across the country.
Elderly fans, officials were also impacted
Laura from Belgium shared her ordeal, too. She mentioned that her family has decided to travel only by road after knowing that some of the families had to come back by train because of flight chaos. Veteran Kenyan hockey icon Avtar Singh Sohal, 87, had to be stuck for nearly 12 hours at the Chandigarh airport, finally reaching Chennai. “They kept delaying the flights for hours. We had no clarity on what was happening,” Sohal mentioned to PTI.
Fans from Bengaluru also choose to travel by road to Chennai instead of flying. Even officials had to experience delays while attempting to reach the venue. As the tournament is near its completion, uncertainty over return plans continues to be worrisome for players, fans and families.
IndiGo chaos enters seventh day
The disruption at IndiGo entered its seventh day, with the airline cancelling around 500 flights in a single day. Meanwhile, the airline has also planned to operate 18,02 services across 137 of its 138 destinations, as per the Civil Aviation Ministry. On Monday itself, 127 flights were cancelled from Bengaluru airport, including 65 arrivals and 62 departures. Meanwhile, the aviation regulator DGCA has flagged serious lapses in the planning and resource management. It has also now permitted IndiGo CEO Peter Elbers and Chief Operating Officer and accountable manager Isride Porqueras a one-time 24-hour extension to reply to the show-cause notices issued over this week’s massive disruptions.
(With inputs from PTI)
