Passengers face hardship as GoAir cancels Jammu flight

Mumbai, Dec 9 (UNI) After being stranded at the Delhi airport for almost eight hours, 35 Jammu-bound passengers on-board GoAir Mumbai-Delhi-Jammu flight landed back here this evening, following the cancellation of their flight due to poor-visibility at Jammu airport.

The flight G8-152 took off from Mumbai this morning at 0600 hrs with 150-odd passengers, of which 35 were Jammu bound and the rest were Delhi passengers. The flight landed at Delhi airport at around 0830 hrs and was supposed to resume its journey for Jammu at 0930 hrs.

One of the passengers from the flight, R Shah was on his way to ''Vaishno Devi'' Shrine at Jammu with his family and friends.

Mr Shah said ''initially, we were not informed, and it was only after being in the aircraft for more than three hours without water or refreshment, the airline announced that it was flying back to Mumbai as weather conditons were not conducive for landing at Jammu airport.'' However, a GoAir spokesperson said that the passengers of the cancelled flight were provided with convenient options.

The affected passengers were given the options of free re-bookings for GoAir flight on the next scheduled service on the same sector, the spokesperson clarified.

He said that those customers who were unwilling to avail the free re-booking facility were provided with the option of a full-refund for their bookings as paid by them.

The Jammu bound passengers from Mumbai on this flight have been brought back to Mumbai, he added.

The spokesperson also refuted the claims of some passengers that they were not provided with water or refreshment when the aircraft was awaiting ATC clearance for take off at the Delhi airport.

According to recent DGCA guidelines, all airlines will have to provide snacks and refreshments to passengers in case of a flight being delayed beyond a specified duration due to fog.

UNI