Pune: The situation of connecting flights from Lohegaon airport seems bleak. Passengers and travel agents have demanded that the airport authorities should do proper planning of flight schedules so that passengers are not inconvenienced.
The Lohegaon airport operations have been restricted during the night hours 8pm to 8am. The Indian Air Force is carrying out re-carpeting work at the runway of the airport. Due to this work schedule, the flights that operated during night hours have been rescheduled from October 26.
Passengers who travel to cities like Delhi or those coming to Pune for their work are facing huge problems. Due to lack of connecting flights with proper timings, passengers are unable to travel within a day back to their hometowns. Hence, precious resources like time and money of passengers are being wasted.
Nilesh Bhansali, Director of Travel Agent Association said, “The runway should be opened at 5am instead of 8am for civilian flights operation. This would provide major relief to passengers who travel for professional reasons. Also, the connecting flights schedule should be thoughtfully prepared.”
Some passengers complained that although the Pune airport has declared that there would be no night flights, some airlines are still taking bookings from customers for these timings. When passengers realise that the flights have been rescheduled, the airlines refuse to refund the money and instead deposit it in the wallet of the customer. As a result, the money can’t be used by the customer and he or she has to pay separately for another ticket unnecessarily.