Low-cost fliers can't be blamed,: passengers

Swati R. Chaudhary / TNN / Mar 12, 2006, 01:04 IST

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Over 30 flights - both incoming and outgoing - all scheduled late morning and afternoon were delayed.

Low-cost fliers can't be blamed,: passengers

BANGALORE: More than 2,000 passengers across the country were stranded when Bangalore-bound Air Deccan flight DN 108 from Coimbatore crash-landed at the HAL airport here.
Over 30 flights - both incoming and outgoing - all scheduled late morning and afternoon were delayed.
Apart from this, 25 Air Deccan fligts were rescheduled and three flights - to and from Coimbatore and one to Hyderabad - were cancelled, affecting over 900 passengers.
"I was to board the 10.20 am Air Deccan Hyderabad flight, but now I guess I'm going tomorrow at 6.30 am. From there, I need to board a connecting flight to Nagpur. The authorities had better make adequate arrangements," said Megha Prasad, a software engineer.

Others were less forgiving. "I booked my ticket online months ago and got a good price on Internet. Even if I'm refunded that amount, it will be insufficient to buy me a ticket on another airline at such immediate notice. I've no choice but to wait and fly Air Deccan," said Amit, another passenger.
Although passengers cribbed about the delays, no one blamed Air Deccan. "It was an incident that could've happened on any aircraft, any time.

Recently, even Air Sahara had a problem. It's wrong to assume that a budget airline is more prone to safety problems," said Pooja, a SpiceJet passenger.
Airline officials remained calm. Most passengers were told there was a problem with an Air Deccan flight and rescheduling and clubbing of flights was dealt with. Free lunch and water was offered to all passengers by all airlines, a routine procedure followed during most delays.
"We have more than 30 flights to and from Bangalore everyday. Four cancellations and a few delays are unfortunate but not an out-of-control situation.
Any organised major airline is equipped to deal with untimely delays either due to weather or because of incidents like this one," said U Harish Shenoy, general manager, south, Jet Airways. Six departing and five arriving flights on Jet airways had been thrown off schedule due to the incident.
Air Sahara cancelled only one flight to Delhi, while Indian Airlines, Kingfisher Airlines and Go Air did not cancel any flights - though there were some delays. Evening flights on most airlines were on schedule.

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