Passengers at the Kempegowda International Airport who were travelling ahead of Christmas were in for disappointment on Saturday morning, as hundreds of them were stranded after flight operations were suspended between 6.30 am and 7.30 am. Operations of 48 flights were disrupted and three other flights were diverted.
According to TOI, 13 flights scheduled to arrive and 35 to depart, were delayed. A Bengaluru-bound BlueDart flight from Mumbai, an Indigo flight (6E521) from Kochi and a Spicejet flight (SG 1035) from Hyderabad were diverted to the Chennai airport. According to KIAL, due to the fog and poor visibility, operations were suspended till 8.30 am.
Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Manipal Global Education, who was also stranded tweeted about the “bad service” and impolite staff members of Indigo Airlines. “Kochi bangalore 6E 349 1750 D shows D as 2000 hrs, till now no D, no news, no change in timing; is this the service you give; no elementary courtesy to tell time to Pax? Staff is rude, non communicative! Service sucks! If you do not even have courtesy of communicating,” (sic) Pai tweeted.
The congestion was in the morning at bangalore,flight delayed by 2.4 hours; is this still hurting you? No extra aircraft to handle this, no dynamic flight mngt? Pl train your staff to communicate, be more polite for very delayed flights https://t.co/Px1NUCN8qu
— Mohandas Pai (@TVMohandasPai) December 22, 2018
Pai also complained about the airport being overcrowded with poor sanitation facilities. “Bangalore airport, overcrowded, AC poor, queues in toilet, working much beyond capacity, slow expansion only by 2020 @jayantsinha Minister pl visit to review, we suffer from overcrowding, a apathetic management, bad rude customer service @DrParameshwara.” (sic)
@IndiGo6E Kochi bangalore 6E 349 1750 D shows D as 2000 hrs, till now no D, no news, no change in timing; is this the service you give; no elementary courtesy to telltime to Pax? Staff is rude, non communicative! Service sucks! If you do not even have courtesy of communicating
— Mohandas Pai (@TVMohandasPai) December 22, 2018
Responding to Pai, Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL) tweeted: “Dear Sir, noted and we are committed to working on the same. The increased load and traffic was due to the holiday season travel over the last 2-3 days and fog (sic).”
Several people also complained of the delay and took to Twitter alleging bad customer service from Spicejet.
“Really this is unbearable., I having a medical emergency and u guyzz are always delay. (PNR-LDRVXA): Your flight SG 517 dated 22-Dec-18 from Bengaluru is delayed due to operational reasons and will now depart at 07:45 PM,” (sic) one of the stranded passengers Amit J said.
Really this is unbearable., I having a medical emergency and u guyzz are always delay. (PNR-LDRVXA): Your flight SG 517 dated 22-Dec-18 from Bengaluru is delayed due to operational reasons and will now depart at 07:45 PM.
— Amit j (@Amit_cob31) December 22, 2018