Stranded passengers at Calcutta airport on Tuesday. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Hundreds of fliers, including many headed for post-Puja vacations, were stranded at Calcutta airport on Tuesday with the ongoing Air India pilots’ strike grounding as many as 10 flights.

Mamata Banerjee’s railway ministry was quick to set up a train helpdesk and reservation counters at the airport, but those in a hurry had no choice but to pay more than three times the average airfare to book seats on other flights.

The shipping ministry announced two special ships to and from Port Blair, where nearly 700 passengers from the east are stranded.

The Shipping Corporation of India’s MV Harshavardhan will start from Port Blair on Thursday while another ship will leave for the Union Territory from the city on Wednesday, according to the Union minister of state for shipping, Mukul Roy.

The day’s cancelled flights included two to Delhi and one each to Bangalore, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur-Ahmedabad, Agartala and Kathmandu. A special flight meant to ease the festive rush to Port Blair was grounded, too.

According to Air India sources, more than 800 passengers were affected by the flight cancellations in Calcutta.

Schoolteacher Sunanda Sarkar and her family thought their holiday in north India was over even before it had begun when Air India made them wait four hours at the airport before announcing that there would be no alternative flight to Delhi.

“Airline officials had noted down our names and other details before asking us to proceed to the international terminal, where we were to board an alternative flight,” Sunanda told Metro.

Around 12.30pm, the family of four was told that seats weren’t available on that flight. Sunanda paid an additional Rs 15,000 to reach Delhi by a late-afternoon SpiceJet flight.

Mira Devi Poori, 68, was even more unlucky. “I was booked on an evening flight to Delhi, where my daughter stays,” she said.

Mira Devi finally purchased a ticket for a Wednesday afternoon Kingfisher flight for Rs 8,000, almost double the amount she had paid for the Air India ticket.

Passengers from the city stranded at Port Blair have also been facing a harrowing time. Suman De, wife Debashree and son Rahul were scheduled to take an Air India flight back home on Sunday but have been forced to extend their stay.

“For the past two days we have been going to the airport at 6.30am, waiting till 1pm and returning to the hotel,” he said over phone from Port Blair. “There is total confusion at the airport.”