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Yes, I’m not joking. It took me TWENTY hours to reach Mumbai from Delhi - all thanks to foggy weather prevailing in Delhi and Air Sahara’s pathetic service.

I had a booking on Air Sahara’s flight which was scheduled to take off at 2025 hours from Delhi. While I was on the way to the airport, I got an SMS that the flight has been delayed by about 2 hours and will now take off at around 2220 hours. At that particular time, the weather was absolutely clear - visibility levels were excellent.

On reaching the airport, I came to know that plane is coming from Hyderabad & took off from there at 2115 hours. And, to my knowledge Hyderabad-Delhi flight takes approx 2-2.5 hours. But, Air Sahara staff kept on saying that our flight will surely leave Delhi by 2220 hours as mentioned. Phew!!

As per my estimation, the flight got delayed further - and to add to our agony, there was what so ever no announcement made by Air Sahara’s staff. WTF!!

Finally, when the plane from Hyderabad landed in Delhi at around 2330 hours. We boarded that plane at around 0015 hours. But, within few minutes, the pilot announced the plane cannot fly due to fog, and so it had to be cancelled. A thick blanket of fog had descended at the Delhi Airport very quickly. Aargh!!

There were passengers on the plane who were at the Delhi Airport for more than 36 hours but each time they boarded a flight - it got cancelled. Moreover, there were almost no vacancy in any of the flights for Mumbai the next day. So, we all decided to stay inside the plane and force airlines officials to give us confirmed tickets for any flight next day. Yes, it was a ‘Dharna’ - dharna against the non-professional attitude and poor service given by the airline.

They wanted the plane so that they can use it the next morning. But, we didn’t disembarked from the plane. The worst part was that the crew left the plane within seconds of announement of flight being cancelled. As a result, there was nobody inside the plane apart from 80-100 odd passengers. It was chaotic scene for sure. Resembled more like a sleeper coach of a train People started getting food from the enclosures at the back of the plane themselves. Look at the pictures!!

Meanwhile, the airline staff tried their best to get us offloaded from the plane - but without any success. All passengers were adamant that they should be given confirmed tickets for next day. Finally, at 6 in the morning, they gave boarding passes to all of us. Only after that we disembarked.

LOL! I was joking with my friend that we entered Delhi airport through departure lounge, and came outside from Arrival lounge after around 10-12 hours without taking off

I had got a boarding pass for 0935 hours flight. And, guess what, this flight got delayed as well - that too by about 5 hours!! Jab kismet buri ho to kuch nahin sakta!!

Finally reached Mumbai at around 1630 hours - ending our 20 hours of agony!! Never thought that a plane can take more time to reach Mumbai than Rajdhani Express!!

What a great way to start 2007!!!

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Posted at : January 6th, 2007 - 2:30 pm
Filed under : Travelling
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