Major private airliners on Tuesday cancelled over 170 flights from various cities to West Bengal and Kerala in the wake of the strike called by central trade unions, but national carrier Air India said its operations were not hampered due to the stir.
Air operations to and from Kolkata were crippled as the private airliners like Kingfisher, Jet Airways, Jetlite, Indigo and Spicejet cancelled nearly 177 flights mainly to the two Left-ruled states.
Passengers were stranded at Kolkata airport as public transport was also hit by the day-long stir.
However, Air India sources told PTI that flight operations by the airliner remained normal as it flew aircraft from Kolkata in the morning after the strike began at 6 AM.
The flights included an international one to Singapore and domestic flights to Mumbai, Port Blair, New Delhi, Silchar and Aizwal, the sources said.
They said Air India had cancelled its flight to Kathmandu. Six flights on the Chennai-Kolkata route were affected, airport sources said in Chennai. Officials at Delhi airport said there was no impact of the strike on any of its operations.
Among the airlines, Air India's flights to Kolkata were as per schedule but Kingfisher airlines and Jet airways did not operate any flights to West Bengal.
As many as 29 King Fisher flights, that includes to and from from Kolkata, and 70 of Jet and Jetlite combined did not operate, officials of the airline companies said.
Spicejet has cancelled 27 of its flights across India and Indigo did not operate 51 of its flights, DGCA officials said.
Kingfisher has cancelled their Dhaka flight while Jet their flight to Bangkok. Jet has preponed their Kolkata-Dhaka flight (9W-274) which would depart Kolkata at 5.30 am, while the Dhaka-Kolkata flight (9W-273) would remain postponed for tomorrow and will operate on Wednesday.
The flight would take-off from Dhaka at 0530 hrs and arrive in Kolkata at 0545 hrs (local time). Apart from it, Jet has rescheduled their Delhi- Bagdogra-Guwahati-Delhi flight (9W-2285) which would depart Delhi at 11:15 am and arrive Guwahati at 01:45 pm. Kingfisher has also rescheduled two of its flights, one from Bangalore and other to Hyderabad tomorrow.
The airlines has preponed the departure of its Kolkata-Hyderabad flight (IT 3434) which usually departs the West Bengal capital at 6:50 am would depart at 05:35 am.
Also its Bangalore-Kolkata flight (IT-3419), which originally departs Bangalore at 8.40 pm, will now take-off from there at 4.00 am on Wednesday and arrive Kolkata at 6:15 am.
"Guests are requested to note that there would be no transportation available to and from Kolkata airport while the bandh is in force," a Kingfisher spokesperson said in a statement. The airlines have requested the passengers to contact their call centres to know about the status of their flights.
Jet Airways, and its all economy subsidiary JetLite, have decided to cancel/reschedule their flights from Kolkata to various destinations.
The details of the flights cancelled are as follows:
The cancelled Jet Airways flights are as follows:
9W-065/066 Bangkok-Kolkata-Bangkok
9W-615/616 Mumbai-Kolkata-Mumbai
9W-2278/2279 Kolkata-Delhi-Kolkata
9W-2480/2481 Kolkata-Bagdogra-Kolkata
9W-913/914 Kolkata–Delhi-Kolkata
9W-2451/2452 Kolkata–Bengaluru- Kolkata
9W-2153/2154 Mumbai-Kolkata–Guwahati- Kokata
9W-2157 Kolkata-Mumbai
9W-2401/2019 Kolkata–Mumbai-Kolkata
9W-2482/2483 Kolkata–Guwahati-Kolkata
9W-2852/2853 Kolkata–Patna-Kolkata
9W-2850/2851 Kolkata–Bhubaneshwar-Kolkata
9W-2856/2857 Kolkata–Ranchi-Kolkata
9W-2854/2855 Kolkata–Patna-Kolkata
9W 2151/2152 Mumbai-Kolkata-Mumbai
9W 2454/2455 Chennai-Kolkata-Chennai
9W 217/218 Mumbai- Kolkata-Mumbai
9W 2282/2283 Delhi-Kolkata-Delhi
9W 2289/2290 Delhi-Kolkata-Delhi
9W 2450/2453 Chennai-Kolkata-Chennai
The re-scheduled Jet Airways flights are as follows:
9W-2285 Delhi-Bagdogra-Guwahati-Delhi will operate as Delhi-Guwahati-Delhi as per the following schedule:
9W-2285 will depart Delhi at 1115 hrs, arriving in Guwahati at 1345 hrs
9W-2285 Guwahati-Delhi will depart as per schedule.
9W-274 Kolkata-Dhaka has been pre-poned and will now depart Kolkata at 0530 hrs, arriving in Dhaka at 0645 hrs. (local time).
9W-273 Dhaka-Kolkata of September 7, 2010 stands postponed and will now operate on September 8, 2010 as per the following schedule:
9W 273 will depart Dhaka at 0530 hrs, arriving in Kolkata at 0545 hrs. (local time).
Similarly, JetLite flights have also been cancelled as follows:
S2-371/372 Kolkata-Agartala-Kolkata
S2-363/364 Kolkata-Guwahati-Imphal-Guwahati-Kolkata
S2-364/402 Kolkata-Bengaluru-Kolkata
S2-361/702 Kolkata-Guwahati-Kolkata-Mumbai
S2-703/704/705 Mumbai-Kolkata-Mumbai-Kolkata
S2-319/320 Delhi-Kolkata-Port Blair-Kolkata-Delhi
S2-6411/6252 Kolkata-Vishakhapatnam-Chennai
S2-6251/6218 Chennai-Vishakhapatnam -Delhi
S2-6217/6412 Delhi-Vishakhapatnam- Kolkata
S2-6367/6368 Kolkata-Bhubaneshwar- Kolkata
