Chennai: Congested North Chennai remained cut off from others part of greater Chennai as protestors in labour dominated Pulianthope, MKB Nagar, Royapuram and Pattalam staged demonstrations till late in the night. Passengers to Chennai airport were the worst affected as all roads leading to airport were also closed due to protests.
The ripple effect saw the delay in departure of both domestic and international flights in the city airport. Chennai airport sources confirmed that a total of 37 aircraft including three international flights suffered a delay of a minimum of 30 minutes to over 3 hours. Majority of those stranded included the crew and the passengers who could not reach the airport on time.
Though the aircrafts arrived as per the schedule, passengers were stranded at different parts of the city and the departure of flights continued till late in to the night. “Departures are delayed due to traffic difficulties,” Airport Director G. ChandraMouli told DC.
An Air India flight from Chennai to New Delhi, scheduled to take off at 5pm had only 80 passengers on board during its scheduled time. The 142 seater flight left after two hours of delay as more than 60 passengers arrived only by 7pm, airport sources said.
“We received numerous calls from passengers explaining the long traveling time. Also, the crew members could not reach on time, as the curfew-like-situation was unexpected,” said an airport official adding that at least 10 to 20 per cent of passengers either missed their flight or cancelled their tickets on Monday.
“It usually takes 50 minutes to reach the airport from my hotel in Alwarpet. This is unprecedented as it took three hours. The traffic in interior areas was so irritating that I wanted to call off my day. I worked, as there was a shortage in manpower,” a captain from a private airlines said.
