Rourkela: At least 126 passengers were stranded at the airport here and Bhubaneswar as the connecting flight of Alliance Air was cancelled at the last moment Wednesday. The flight that was supposed to take off from Bhubaneswar airport to Rourkela got cancelled reportedly due to technical snag. The flight was supposed to arrive here at 2pm and leave Rourkela after 40 minutes. The cancellation of the flight caused utter inconvenience to 62 passengers in Bhubaneswar and 64 here as the company could not provide an alternate arrangement – arranging another plane. This is for the second time this month that the flight between the two cities got cancelled.
The flight from Kolkata to Bhubaneswar returned back to the West Bengal capital just 20 minutes before landing. Then Alliance Air declared that flight on Kolkata- BhubaneswarRourkela route was cancelled due to technical issues. Sachetan Nagarik Manch president Bimal Bisi, who was supposed to go to Bhubaneswar in that flight, said, “When I came to know about the cancellation, I immediately spoke to the CEO of Alliance Air who said that the flight had to go back to Kolkata just 20 minutes before landing because of hydraulic issues.
When I said this could have been handled here, he told me that the spare part is available at Kolkata only.” When Bisi demanded that an alternative flight should have been arranged, the CEO said he has 19 planes in different routes at his disposal and that he cannot withdraw any flight from any route. Bisi, who had a crucial meeting in Bhubaneswar Wednesday evening, said, “This is what we are getting after electing a double-engine government. No one is really serious about flight services to Rourkela which is a profitable route.”
RAJESH MOHANTY, OP
