Pune: Over 100 flyers of Vistara’s Pune-Singapore (UK-111) flight languished at the city airport for hours because it was rescheduled multiple times, and boarded an aircraft only to deboard as the airline cancelled the service on Monday morning, over six hours after its scheduled departure time. Many passengers' ordeal continued because they had to wait till almost 11am for the refund. Some flyers spent almost 13 hours at the facility because they had reported for the overseas flight much before its scheduled departure.
The flight was scheduled to take off from the city at 2.10am on Monday and land in Singapore at IST (Indian Standard Time) 08.10 hours.
The airline attributed the flight’s cancellation to a technical issue in the aircraft. “Before the take-off, a technical snag was detected in the Vistara aircraft operating from Pune to Singapore on September 9. Since the checks and resolution took more than the anticipated time, our crew exceeded their flight duty time limitation.
This compelled us to eventually cancel the flight,” an airline spokesperson told TOI. “We are making all efforts to minimise the inconvenience to our customers, including offering them refreshments, alternative flight options and refunds, as applicable. We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to our customers.
As always, the safety of our customers and crew is of utmost importance to Vistara,” the spokesperson said. Baner’s Prakash Jakune was booked on the Vistara flight for a bus.