Deccan flight fails to reach Surat for 3rd day

The much-awaited Mumbai-Surat-Bhavnagar flight failed to reach the Surat airport for the third consecutive day on Tuesday.

The inaugural flight of Air Deccan could not land at the airport on Sunday due to inclement weather. The flight, which was scheduled to begin from Monday, failed to arrive at Surat again, leaving many persons disappointed.

Air Deccan had claimed that the flight would commence operation from Tuesday, but this did not happen either.

At least five passengers were present at the airport on Monday afternoon, awaiting for the aircraft's arrival.

Thakore Umariya (60), a non-resident Indian who had come to India two months back said, "I am supposed to catch my flight to London from Mumbai on Tuesday. I had seen advertisements of Air Deccan about the launch of the flight. I waited at the airport for over two hours for the flight, but it never arrived. I will have to catch a train to Mumbai, so that I do not miss my flight for London."

Magan Ahir, a farmer from Savarkundla in Rajkot, was another passenger present at the airport on Monday.

"I had come to Surat for some work and I heard that the flight was being launched from Monday, so I decided to travel by air. I had gone to Air Deccan's booking office at Parle Point on Sunday to purchase a ticket, but I was told that I would get the ticket at the airport on arrival of the flight. I am terribly disappointed at the treatment that we have been meted out by the Air Deccan authorities," Ahir said.

Vipin Patel, who resides at Rander Road in Surat, said, "I was supposed to travel to Bhavnagar for business purpose and had booked a ticket of the Air Deccan flight on July 17 itself. I had fixed various appointments at Bhavnagar for Monday, but the flight never arrived. I can easily drag Air Deccan to the court, but I won't do that in the interest of Surat."

Patel also expressed anguish over the assurances he was given at the airport.

"I waited for the flight for over two hours. The airport staff kept on telling me that the flight would arrive shortly, but it never happened. I do not know the reason behind the non-arrival of the flight, but I would say that the infrastructure at Surat airport does not seem good enough to handle air traffic," Patel said.

Suman Pal, manager, Surat Airport, said, "We have no official information about any flight of Air Deccan arriving at Surat. Air Deccan was given permission only for Sunday's inaugural flight, but it could not land at Surat due to inclement weather. I do not have any details about when the company would begin commercial flights from Surat."

On Monday, John Kuruvilla, chief revenue officer and head commercial, Air Deccan, had expressed confidence that the flight would commence from Tuesday. But on Tuesday also the aircraft did not turn up.

"We were set to start our flights from today itself, but were unable to do so because of some operational issues. But I can assure you that the flights will commence as per the schedule we had announced earlier from Tuesday," Kuruvilla said.

"There will be no more delay in starting the flights. We have got all the necessary clearance from the DGCA (Director General Civil Aviation) and I can say for sure that we are launching our Mumbai-Surat-Bhavnagar flight from Tuesday," he added.

Repeated efforts to contact Kuruvilla on Tuesday went futile.

Senior officials of Airport Authority of India had said that starting flights from the airport was unsafe, and it was only because of political pressure that they had to give the green signal to commence the flights.