At least 9 flights delayed due to stir

 

Bengaluru, 04 March 2016: Trapped in the unprecedented traffic pile-up on Airport road for hours, over 350 passengers missed their flights to various destinations here on Thursday afternoon. 

 

The bizarre build-up of vehicles triggered by the farmer’s protest had hundreds of taxis bound for Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) stuck deep in the jam. KIA sources said at least nine flights were delayed between 3 pm and 6 pm as the airlines were advised to wait for late-arriving passengers. Among the flights affected were Indigo, Jet Airways, SpiceJet, Air Costa and TruJet. The flights took off having reported several “no-show” passengers who could not make it on time. 

 

An Air Asia spokesperson said 30 passengers of the airline missed their flights. However, all of them were booked onto alternative AirAsia flights to their destinations without any hassle. 

 

Many of them who arrived after the flight departure, were accommodated in the next available flight to their respective destinations. However, there were several others who were not so lucky. Even those who managed an alternative flight were anxious that they would miss connecting flights from other cities. 

 

Four Indigo flights were also affected by delays. But not all passengers could be accommodated in later flights due to non-availability of seats. They were booked for flights taking off early Friday at no additional cost, airline sources said. Hundreds of farmers driving tractors and two-wheelers had laid seige to the City, bringing traffic on the busy Airport Road and Mehkri Circle to a screeching halt. 

 

Since KIA could be accessed only through the entry from the Trumpet Flyover side, options were severely limited for the passengers. Protest-linked traffic congestion on Old Madras road slowed down their access to Budigere Cross, from where an alternative road leads to the airport from Devanahalli side. Vehicular movement had been reduced to a crawl at the usually crowded K R Puram bridge on Old Madras Road. Airport taxi operators and passengers hooked to traffic police social media updates struggled to find different routes to the airport with relatively lighter traffic.