Flight delays and go-around incidents worry passengers

Pune: Passengers of a Kolkata to Pune Akasa Air flight were made to wait in the aircraft for more than two hours after boarding on Tuesday. The flight took off from Kolkata at 11.40am and landed in Pune at 2.16pm. "Boarded the flight at 9am but stranded inside the aircraft for almost 2 hours now in the name of technical issues. Don't airlines go through pre-flight inspections?" a passenger asked on X. Another flyer claimed that there was a problem with the flight regularly.

The airline, while posting messages of regret to flyers, cited operational reasons for the delay, and said it was doing everything to ensure passengers reached their destination at the earliest.




This was the second incident in two days where flyers were hassled.

On Monday, an IndiGo Bengaluru-Pune flight made a touchdown but suddenly took off again, scaring some passengers. It landed again after around 20 minutes. "The aircraft aborted the landing attempt after touchdown and took off again. Passengers were puzzled and concerned but calm. The pilot announced 8-10 minutes later [that there was a] possible landing gear issue," a flyer said on X.

The flight had taken off from Bengaluru at 5.26pm and landed in Pune around 6.50pm. Sources said the aircraft, an Airbus A-320, had over 150 passengers on board.

IndiGo has not yet responded to queries pertaining to the incident. Airline sources, however, claimed there was no technical issue. "It was the pilot's decision to make a go-around due to some reasons. The flight landed in Pune on time and then flew to its onward destination on time too. At times, pilots, owing to several reasons, aborts landing and makes a go-around which is normal," an airline official told TOI.

In late Feb, an Air India Express flight from Indore had made a rough landing in Pune, took off again and then landed safely after around half an hour. In Dec, there was a similar incident involving another Air India Express flight from Delhi.