12 flights delayed at Pune international airport in Q1 2023

The first quarter of 2023 till March 2 saw as many as 12 flights getting delayed, causing inconvenience to flyers at Pune international airport. So much so that flyers now want the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to take action against airlines, flights of which are regularly delayed.

In the latest instance of flight delay, AirAsia’s Bhubaneshwar-bound flight was delayed by eight hours while Air India’s Delhi-bound flight was delayed by five hours.

AIX Connect spokesperson said, “VT-ATF, operating from Bhubaneswar to Pune, suffered a bird strike after take-off and returned to Bhubaneswar for detailed inspection. We are attending to the guests and taking steps to minimise the impact on other scheduled operations. We regret the inconvenience caused due to circumstances beyond our control.”

Flyers are irked as they are forced to spend more hours at the airport. Whereas flight delays also increase congestion at the airport as it has less space to begin with.

Regular flyer Sumit Shukla said, “Flyers are suffering badly as airlines are not able to provide comfort while travelling even after paying huge sums of money.”

Another frequent flyer Ruch Shah said, “The airport is small and back-to-back flight departures bring more flyers to the airport premises at any given point in time. If flights get delayed, the rush inside the airport increases. Flyers are facing inconvenience due to these reasons.”

Most of the flight delays in the first quarter of 2023 have occurred due to technical problems. Dhairyashil Vandekar, civil aviation analyst, said, “Flyers have to face a lot of problems due to flight delays. Airport authorities should take action against airlines for regular delays. The airlines should step up aircraft maintenance so that the aircraft do not develop technical snags on a regular basis.”