HYDERABAD: Alliance Air cancelled eight flights to and from Hyderabad on Monday citing technical and operational problems, but passengers were not informed in advance. This caused confusion and outrage among passengers who turned up at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Shamshabad, expecting to fly to their destinations.
Alliance Air cancelled its morning flights, one each to Tirupati, Bengaluru, Vijayawada and Mysore, as well as two flights arriving to the city from Chennai and one each from Bengaluru and Mysuru.
Scores of air travellers were stuck at the airport after Alliance Air cancelled the flights without information. The airline did not make alternative arrangements.
While the airlines claimed the cancellation was due to operational issues, sources claimed that Alliance Air was going through a financial crisis, that salary issues had been unresolved for long and that close to a hundred of its important staff, including a large number of pilots, had gone on mass sick leave as a mark of protest.
Passengers were outraged at the airline not communicating with them. Nikita Agarwal @nikitagarwala Tweeted: "Aside from full refund/alternate travel options, are you going to compensate because when it was informed, I was already at the airport and was casually told flight cancelled as per civil aviation flight cancellation. I am entitled to compensation because this was communicated to me less than 24 hours before my scheduled departure time, leaving me stranded at the airport with no viable alternatives from you. Could you please check this as soon as possible?”
Nandini Soman Tweeted, “Worst airline service provider. We had booked a ticket from Delhi to Indore for today. When I arrived at the airport, the employees informed me that your flight had been cancelled. They were quite rude and disrespectful. We informed them that we had children with us, but they refused to provide water as well.”
