Patna: Passengers onboard IndiGo airlines flight 6E-6325 from Ranchi were happy when the plane landed at Patna airport on time on August 18 evening. They waited for the doors to open so that they could disembark quickly anmd be on their way, but nothing of that sort happened.

As the clock ticked away and people started becoming restless, the pilot announced that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) was yet to a parking bay for the aircraft.

"We all had to wait for half-an-hour inside the aircraft," said a passenger who was on the flight but who requested anonymity.

"Children were crying, the toilets were shut, time was wasted and those who were tired and wanted to deplane as quickly as possible were left disappointed."

This was not a one off occurrence at Jayaprakash Narayan International Airport. Many flights are facing such unwanted and avoidable delays.

"I had gone to receive my father at Patna airport a few days ago in the evening. His flight landed. We were talking over mobile, yet he could deplane only after around 40 minutes. He is an aged person and suffered due to the delay," said Sandeep Shrivastava, a businessman.

Such delays are becoming frequent as the number of flights at the airport has increased to around 49 arrivals and 49 departures almost every day.

Patna airport director Rajender Singh Lahauria told The Telegraph on Tuesday that the main reason behind such unwanted delays was the inadequate number of parking bays for aircraft.

"We have total five parking bays, of which one is small and suitable only for small planes like Dornier and ATR. That leaves us practically with just four parking bays. If any flight arrives late or takes off late then it creates unwanted delays," Lahauria said.

The airport director said that the problem also happens when an aircraft takes more time for disembarking or take off and keeps the parking bay allotted to it engaged.

Normally, the turnaround time for a big aeroplane such as Boeing 737 and Airbus 320 at a parking bay is 25 to 30 minutes.

If it takes more than the stipulated time, the one arriving later has to wait to use the bay.

AAI officials pointed out that the airport is small but it is witnessing tremendous growth in passenger traffic, due to which the number of flights is continuously increasing.

"We are going to add two more parking bays at the airport by the advent of winter. This will ease the situation. The issue will be continuously resolved once the new terminal building comes up," Lahauria added.

The airport director also said that no compensation was paid to the airlines for delays due to non-availability of parking bay as they were counted as "operational delays".

He added that some nominal amount was charged from airlines to allow them to use the parking bays.