Passengers at the Biju Patnaik International Airport here were stranded following a sudden cancellation of the Port Blair-Bhubaneswar-Delhi flight of Air India on Sunday morning.
The Air India flight was scheduled to leave from the airport for Delhi at 9.30 am, but more than half an hour after the scheduled departure, the airport authorities told the passengers that technical difficulties in the plane had delayed the flight. As a result, the passengers hailing from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, in particular, had a harrowing time.
“We have to catch a connecting flight to our country from Delhi. But as the airport authorities here are not giving us the exact time for departure, we are sure to miss the flight from Delhi,” they said. An irate passenger, who came from Jharsuguda to board the flight to Delhi, said the Air India authorities should have made alternative arrangements to ensure that passengers reached their destination in time instead of being careless.