Loony tunes at airports

Loony tunes at airports
Author: Sanchita Sen Date: 24 May 2008

Chaos and confusion reigned at both HAL and BIAL, hassling passengers and visitors alike




Unhappy Lot: S K Dudani, daughter Shalini and granddaughter Ishita wait for Dudani’s wife, a first time flier; Narendra (top) frantically tries to get information; Mitesh Shah (above) forces a smile as he waits for his wife; Dhiraj Poddar (right) is happy to finally land at HAL airport pics/vinod kumar t, satish badiger
Despite the 12 o’ clock deadline for HAL airport to close operations for commercial flights, the weather forced the ATC to remain operational well past midnight.

Due to the rains, a Jetlite flight from Delhi, which was scheduled to land at the HAL airport at 9.20 pm yesterday, landed after midnight. The same flight took off for Hyderabad at 1.30 am from the same airport.

Confusion galore

“I have been waiting here for the past three hours, and I still don’t know where the flight will land,” said S K Dudani (62), a retired registrar who was waiting for his wife. His wife was arriving today from Delhi.

When he read about the delay in the inauguration of the new airport, he thought he had got lucky. “The delay was only for a day. We are confused because we still don’t know where the flight will land,” said Shalini Joshi, Dudani’s daughter, who was waiting at the HAL airport to receive her mother.

First timer

“My wife is travelling on her own for the first time. I am worried because I don’t know where the flight will land. It has been delayed by more than two-and-a-half hours now,” said Dudani, who had called up the airline operator at least 20 times in the day just to confirm where the flight would land. “But instead of landing at 9.20pm the flight took off from Delhi at that time,” he added.

Delays galore

While other domestic airlines were closing down their counters, Jetlite had its counter open because of the delay. “The flight from Delhi is scheduled to take off for Hyderabad, so the chain reaction and the delay,” said a Jetlite spokesperson at the enquiry counter.

More trouble

“I have been waiting here for the past few hours as the Deccan Airways flight from Ahmedabad, on which my wife is travelling, is delayed. I just hope that it lands before midnight,” said Mitesh Shah, an entrepreneur.

Dhiraj Poddar (30), a finance consultant, had taken a Deccan Airways flight from Mumbai to Bangalore.

He said, “My flight was scheduled to take off at 9.30 pm from Mumbai, but it finally took off around 11 pm.

Till 7 pm we were told that the flight would be landing at Devanahalli airport but we ended up at HAl airport,” said Dhiraj.

Where will it land?

Narendra (32), director of Flick Express, a DVD rentals service, was waiting at the HAL airport for his Korean business partner Youngdal Shin from Seoul. He was scheduled to arrive by a Thai Airways flight.

“I was expecting him at 9.30 pm at the HAL airport. The TV monitors, where the flight information is usually flashed, were switched off. So I had no way of knowing the status of the flight,” he said angrily.

He finally learnt from the helpline that his partner’s would land at 11.15 pm at BIAL.

“I came here only to be told that the flight was further delayed, and would land at 4 am,” said Narendra.

He was very unhappy that he had to drive nearly 45 km, from HAL to BIAL, only because the Airports Authority failed to make the transition between the two airports smooth.

Where are the passengers?

Amit Bajaj (29), who was waiting to receive his parents at the Devanahalli airport at 11.30 pm, could not reach there on time because the BMTC Volvo bus did not arrive at the HAL airport. Ironically, the Vayu Vajra buses (in pic above) to BIA were plying empty on other routes. Amit’s parents were on an Indian Airlines flight from Kolkata. “We were told by BMTC authorities that the bus would be coming here. We waited in vain. I don’t know how to give directions to my parents to come to my house in BTM Layout from Devanahalli,” he said.