After smooth take-off,a bumpy ride for AI

Earlier on Thursday,the airline seemed to be in a better position to face passenger rush with its entire manpower concentrated at T3. Having decided to shift 11 of its domestic operations to T3 on October 31 itself,Air India had been battling a big crisis with delayed and cancelled flight operations caused by a severe shortage of manpower. The airline had argued that its manpower was being stretched between the domestic and international terminals.

“The overall performance was good on Thursday,with only a few delays towards the evening. That was because of some late arrivals. There was sufficient manpower to handle the increased operations,the issues with baggage handling were resolved to a great extent,and the experience of an integrated terminal was overall very good,” an airline spokesperson said in the evening.

However,within a few hours,there was chaos at the domestic terminal. The problems escalated as crew timings for other outbound flights expired and more than 15 flights got delayed by over three hours. Passengers complained that though the flights were delayed by hours the display boards kept showing they were on time. Protests were witnessed as irate passengers of two flights,bound for Amritsar and Kochi,shouted slogans against the airline at about 10.30 pm. There was no information about the flights at the airport for about four hours,even as the Air India staff was clueless,sources said.

A total of 45 departures and 40 arrivals were handled from Terminal 3 till 6 pm. “Approximately 6,300 passengers were booked to fly out of Delhi to various domestic destinations on the 45 flights,” the spokesperson said.

The first domestic flight,IC 867 to Goa,pushed back from the aerobridge on schedule and departed the airport at 4.55 am. The first domestic flight to arrive at T3 was IC 601 from Mumbai at 7.55 am.

Meanwhile,Air India was also struggling to cope with the thousands of pieces of baggage lying at T3 since October 31. “We are trying to figure out where these bags belong,and also trying our best to make sure they reach the right passengers. We dispatched 400 bags today. The number should come down since operations are a lot smoother now,” an official at T3 said.

The official said passengers booked on connecting flights were the most affected. There have been goof-ups due to shortage of ground handlers and loaders,which has meant loss of baggage for many passengers,the official said.

“A multi-pronged communication plan launched earlier in the week ensured that passengers were kept informed of the transition to the new terminal by way of news reports,advertisements,SMS and direct calls to passengers from the call centre etc,” the airline official said.