I-A’s 36-hour leisure journey passengers never bargained for

The Indian Express spoke to several of them on how their 3-hour trip turned into a 36-hour ordeal. After landing at a hotel, there was no message from the IA authorities till 2.00 today on what arrangement were being made, said Mangalani was going to Jaipur for Diwali.

“At 2.00 pm we were told that no aircraft was available. Finally, they arranged for a Bangalore flight to divert and take us to Delhi,” he said.

Mangalani says whenhe asked for milk for his kids at the hotel, first it was denied. It was given only after he took up the issue with the authorities.

“After the Indian Airlines plane landed here at around 6 pm last evening, we were told by the airport authorities that the further journey to Jaipur had been cancelled due to inclement weather,” said Bobby Naidu, a South African NRI holidaying in India with his wife.

The couple said they planned to give Jaipur the go-by and catch up with the next destination.

“We had to phone Airlines authorities several times, but failed to get decent arrangement. The authorities kept on transferring our calls from one person to another.”

Another passenger H C Soans says, “Instead of grounding the plane in Ahmedabad they should have foreseen the situation in Mumbai itself.”

Soans was particularly upset by the manner in which the airport authorities kept them waiting for four hours at the airport last night. “It was only around 10 pm that we were brought to the hotel.”

SureshMangalani, a company secretary in Mumbai, going to Jaipur with his wife and children, was acutely disturbed. “Things were messy when the flight landed at Ahmedabad yesterday. Till 9.30 they did not even tell us why we were kept waiting here. Some 10-odd children on the flight were really hungry, and they gave samosas only after we put pressure.”