Pune: Over 100 flyers booked on an Air India Express flight (IX1236) to Indore on Saturday morning were frustrated when the airline cancelled it after an initial delay of two hours.The second leg of the same flight from Indore to Delhi was also consequently cancelled. A passenger said the flight was supposed to take off from Pune at 8.10am and reach Indore at 9.55am.“The flight was to take off from Indore at 10.35am and land in Delhi at 11.15am. I had booked the hopping flight as the fare was less compared to the direct flights, but the whole plan went for a toss,” he said.An official statement from the airline was awaited till going to press. Sources said the aircraft had encountered a technical issue, which resulted in the delay.“Thereafter, NOTAM came into effect from 10am until 4pm in Pune. Hence, the flight had to be cancelled. Flyers were provided refreshments and all alternatives, including free rebooking or full refund and surface travel options, if they wanted to go to Mumbai airport and take one of our flights from there free of cost,” an airline official said.Passengers had arguments with the ground staff in the absence of proper information regarding the flight’s delay and the subsequent cancellation. “I had a family function to attend in Indore today (Saturday). We had reached the airport around 6am for the flight. No proper information was given to passengers. This triggered anger among flyers and the subsequent arguments,” another flyer said.He said the ground staff informed the passengers that if the flight got delayed till 10am or beyond, it could be cancelled. “The same happened finally. The airline suddenly cancelled the flight, saying there was some technical issue. While the airline provided refreshments and some options, plans of several flyers got affected because of the flight cancellation. The airline didn’t mention what kind of technical issue led to the cancellation,” he said.Flyers scheduled to travel from Indore to Delhi were also hassled. “It was important for me to travel. I had to book a last minute ticket of another airline, which cost me a lot of money. We were not provided any information about the reason of the flight cancellation. Airlines need to be transparent with flyers, which unfortunately is not the case,” another flyer said.
