Kolkata: The chaos at airport shows no signs of abating as flyers continue to grapple with the fallout from a wave of cancellations and rescheduling. Flyers fret over a more than four-day lag for luggage transfers. While many travellers have finally reached their destination, their ordeal is far from over as they face a new challenge — missing luggage.
"I did not receive my luggage. They confirmed that no luggage has arrived from Delhi since Dec 4, and none will come tomorrow or the day after, as all flights to and from Delhi are cancelled. I was made to wait from 1 pm to 7 pm only to be told this," said Anindita Banerjee, 30, who flew in from Texas with her husband Arjit Chakrabarti. Their IndiGo flight to Kolkata was cancelled, forcing them onto separate routes — she via Itanagar, Arijit via Guwahati. While Anindita reached Kolkata late Thursday, her husband's flight was cancelled after check-in. Both their luggage are missing. "I booked through Turkish Airlines, so IndiGo says I'm not their direct customer. Turkish Airlines says they delivered the luggage to Delhi and are no longer responsible," she said.
Aditi Ganguly, a resident of Khardaha, returned to Kolkata from Bengaluru after a 14-hour flight delay, only to find her luggage missing at the conveyor belt. Among the items were her passport, visa, and crucial documents for a Dubai business trip on Sunday. "I missed my Dubai presentation," she said. "On Sunday, IndiGo staff took a photo of my baggage tag and said they'd send it home once found."
Haji Akhtar Ali Khan, 65, from Maheshtala, has been grappling with a similar ordeal. Returning from Pune on Tuesday, he reported two missing checked-in bags. Abhimanyu Singh of Dum Dum returned from Hyderabad on Thursday, only to find his trolley bag missing. On Saturday evening, he received a call from IndiGo instructing him to collect it. "I arrived at airport on Sunday, only to be told my bag had been handed to a vendor for home delivery," he said. Airport authorities and IndiGo staff have cited the sheer volume of disrupted flights and logistical challenges.