“This flight is doomed”, said the passenger next to me, with a chuckle. Not the kind of words you would want to hear, especially airborne. Luckily, we were still firmly on the ground when this comment was made. At this point, it was anybody’s guess if the flight would take off, let alone reach the destination.
The passenger’s comment didn’t just apply to the flight in question, but to the Indian airline industry, as we were to witness in the coming days. If you hadn’t been left stranded by Indigo in the last week, there’s a good chance you would know somebody – a friend, colleague, relative – who has been impacted in whichever way.
Thousands of passengers are still counting the costs – money, time and emotions – of a cancelled or delayed flight. I had the bizarre experience of a vacation bookended by two disrupted flights. The planets were simply not aligned in my favour, let’s just say, for the lack of any other plausible explanation.
The chaos and confusion I experienced wasn’t restricted to only one airline. Late in November, I was to fly from Bangalore to Guwahati, where I was set to join an organised group trip to Meghalaya. The evening Air India Express flight was initially delayed by an hour and a half, as it departed late from Ranchi, before the Bangalore halt. Boarding was further delayed, as we braced for a midnight arrival.
