The aerial connectivity of the Kashmir valley with other parts of the country was again disrupted today due to low visibility caused by bad weather. It forced the cancellation of more than two dozen flights at the region’s only civilian airport.
Sharad Kumar, Director, Srinagar International Airport, said 26 flights scheduled to arrive and depart from here were cancelled due to low visibility.
The official said the visibility had dropped to 800 m in the early afternoon, which was 500 m short of the 1.3 km required for safe landing of flights. “Eight flights could operate in the morning when the visibility was around 1,800 m, but at 1 pm it dropped to 800 m,” Kumar said. Low visibility was caused by increased levels of smog.
Hundreds of passengers, planning to fly in and out of Kashmir, had to return from the airport after a long wait as all flights scheduled for afternoon hours were cancelled.
The official said a similar disruption at New Delhi airport, caused by bad weather conditions, had further complicated the flight schedule.
It is for the second time this month that the air traffic has suffered disruption in the Valley. Earlier this month, the disruption caused by low visibility had continued for nearly a week and had affected more than 40,000 passengers.
The frequent disruption of the air traffic this month has renewed the demand for installation of the Instrumentation Landing System which allows landing of passenger flights in adverse climatic conditions.
Meanwhile, A private airline IndiGo has been taken to court for ill-treating passengers in Kashmir.
A Kashmiri businessman Ghulam Nabi Mir of Pampore has sent a legal notice to IndiGo Airlines for canceling his ticket at the eleventh hour without prior communication causing loss to his business and mental agony.
According to the legal notice, Mir had booked IndioGo flight (6E 694) last month from Srinagar to Delhi for November 21. However, the flight was canceled due to bad weather. Although his ticket was rescheduled for November 27 but no prior communication was sent to him.
“The IndiGo airlines didn’t inform my client about the new schedule which was incumbent upon them,” reads the legal notice sent by Mir’s counsel Advocate Mudasir Naqshabandi.
It says the aggrieved passenger is a businessman by profession dealing with Kashmiri Saffron and had a meeting scheduled for November 28 in Delhi.
“There was no intimation on your side that the flight will be canceled or rescheduled,” the legal notice reads.
“A day before you informed my client that the flight IndiGo flight no 6E694 has been canceled and the said information was given at 8pm via Phone and SMS, my client called your customer care number and you informed him that his flight has been canceled and the reimbursement of the money will be done. Even then my client asked you to accommodate him in other flight which you refused and you informed him that all the flights till December 3, have been canceled. However, next day the same flight i.e. 6E 694 departed for Delhi from Srinagar and it was the same flight in which my client was scheduled to travel. Your actions have not only caused business loss of about 2 lakh rupees my cleinet but also have caused him mental agony and you have lost the trust of my client,” the notice reads.
“It’s impressed upon you through the medium of this legal notice to compensate my client and further to take up the matter of my client with concerned authorities with a stipulated time of 15days ,else my client have no option but to knock doors of justice,” notice said.
