NEW DELHI/MUMBAI : For the first time in his life, Wasim Khan was not with his family in Dhanbad for Eid. He was to leave Delhi on Monday via Air India’s 7am flight to Ranchi, but at 3am, a masked man at the airport main gate told him flight AI 0417 had been cancelled. “No texts.
No emails. No explanation. Some people had come from Meerut for this flight," said Khan, angry and tired. “This is utter madness." Chaos, confusion and long queues greeted passengers as flights resumed after a two-month air travel ban to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
Still, thousands of passengers flew on Monday to check on elderly parents, go home from a city they had been stranded in, or to deal with family emergencies.