The sudden strike by Air India pilots left some 40 passengers bound for international destinations stranded at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in the city on Tuesday.
Three flights of Air India were cancelled from the city but several passengers remained uninformed about the decision. A ruckus soon followed as passengers came to know of the flight cancellation only after reaching the airport. The two flights that were cancelled were AI011 Ahmedabad-Delhi-Chicago that was to fly from the city at 7.30 pm and AI191 Ahmedabad-Mumbai-Newark which was to fly from the city at 9.30 pm. The third was an Ahmedabad-Delhi-Singapore flight that was cancelled but some 40 passengers of the same were accommodated in a Jet Airways flight.
It should be noted that flight number AI011was cancelled on Monday evening too and some 90 passengers were offloaded.
“The passengers had cleared the security check and were on their way to board the plane when they were informed that the flight was cancelled,” said an official at the airport about Monday's flight cancellation.
"We had called up the Air India office before coming here. At that time they told us that there was no cancellation. As we were about to reach the airport I got a call from the airline officials informing me that my flight to Chicago was cancelled," said a passenger of AI, who did not wish to be named. She said three members from her family were to go to Chicago on a tourist visa.
"We spent close to Rs50,000 to book the tickets. Now we will have to either cancel our plan or re-book the tickets which will no doubt be costly," said the passenger.
An airlines official said that there were in all 200 passengers and 70% of them were informed. "The rest we could not because we did not have their local contact number. Of this most had booked their return flight from Newark or Chicago itself," said the official.
Sachin Patel from Vadodara, who accompanied his aunt and three others to the airport, said they were not informed of the cancellation. "We left from Vadodara at 4.30pm and at that time called the airlines to confirm that the flight was as per schedule. But when we reached here we were told that the flight had been cancelled," said Patel. He said they have are now planning to go to Mumbai and will then try to book a flight from there to Chicago.
"My aunt and three of my family members need to go urgently as they are green card holders and need to renew it within two days. There is no way they can wait and book a ticket for a later day. We have no other way but to foot out a heavy bill to get the tickets," said Patel.
