A family from Rahara in North 24-Parganas, headed for a holiday in Arunachal Pradesh via an IndiGo flight to Guwahati, found themselves stranded for hours at the airport on Friday morning. With no clarity from the airline and mounting chaos at the terminal, they were eventually forced to buy new tickets at nearly four times the original cost.
Ruby Bhattacharjee, a retired PSU bank employee, recounts her ordeal:
Our IndiGo flight to Guwahati was scheduled for 5.40am. We had booked three tickets for ₹15,300 well in advance. Though we were tense about a possible cancellation, the airline sent no alert, so we remained hopeful. My son Ranajoy, my husband Ranendra, and I left our Rahara home at 3.30am after staying awake the entire night.
At the airport, we checked in, deposited our luggage, and even received boarding passes. My son asked the staff if the flight was operating, and they assured us it was. But when he asked about the boarding gate, they said it hadn’t been decided yet.
A little later, my son noticed the flight information board showing our flight as cancelled. We rushed back to the counter. The area was in complete chaos — passengers bound for Chennai, Bengaluru, and Mumbai were shouting, many saying they had weddings to attend and were now stranded.
IndiGo staff told us the earliest they could reschedule our flight was December 7, but
our hotels were already booked. One employee said they would refund our tickets. When my son asked about compensation, we were told it wasn’t within their authority.
Meanwhile, fares for an Air India Express flight to Guwahati at 2.30pm were climbing rapidly. We had no choice but to buy three tickets for ₹55,000. Exhausted, we went to a relative’s home in Salt Lake to rest before returning to the airport around noon.