Feb 27, 2019
NEW DELHI: Indian domestic airlines have announced they will waive cancellations and re-booking charges following the suspension of commercial operations at airports north of New Delhi on Wednesday due to the fighting along the border with Pakistan
in Jammu and Kashmir.
Air India said it is waiving rescheduling charges till the first week of
March. Budget carrier GoAir said it will allow rescheduling and cancellations
for free up to March 15 to the defence personnel. Vistara is offering free cancellations
with full refund for tickets booked to or from Amritsar, Jammu, Leh or Srinagar
for travel up to Match 31.
Besides, Air India has decided to fix cap of Rs. 5,000 for its flights from
Delhi to Srinagar, Leh and Jammu for all passengers.
"Effective February 28, GoAir will allow rescheduling or cancellation of reservations,
free of charges, across all sectors, up to March 15 to all defence personnel
who have been asked to resume their duties by their offices," a GoAir said in
a statement.
It said it will allow all passengers travelling to/from Chandigarh, Srinagar,
Jammu and Leh with bookings up to March 15, free cancellations if they wish
to cancel their tickets, besides free re-booking with a one-week pre/post original
date.
Vistara will also waive off no-show fee and provide full refund to all customers
who were affected by restrictions on operations.
Dozens of flights were cancelled or delayed over north India on Wednesday because
of airport closures following the Indo-Pak border conflicts. In Delhi as many
as 47 flights were cancelled while 16 flights were cancelled in Mumbai.
Canada suspended services to India when Pakistan closed its airspace. Air India,
Jet Airways, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines were rerouting their internatioanl
flights.
On Wednesday morning, nine airports in the northern states of Jammu and Kashmir,
Punjab and Himachal Pradesh were closed like Jammu, Srinagar, Leh and Amritsar,
The order was later withdrawn and operations resumed at some airports by eveing.
Out of the 47 flights cancelled from Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport,
25 were departures and 22 were arrivals, news agency ANI reported. In addition
to this, four flights, two each from the domestic and international sector were
diverted from other destinations to Delhi.
In Mumbai eight arrivals and eight departures were cancelled during the day.
Vistsra in a tweet said it plans to operate regular services to Amritsar, Jammu,
Chandigarh, Srinagar and Leh from Thursday.
Air Canada cancelled one flight to India from Vancouver and another flight
en route to Delhi was turned back to Toronto.
