With volcanic plumes virtually grounding air traffic over the European sky, Air India cancelled its flights to Europe and North America till Monday but Jet Airways announced plans to resume operations to New York and Toronto by making a diversion over Greece.
Hundreds of air travellers, both Indian and foreign, faced inconvenience at Delhi and Mumbai where airline or airport officials could not confirm when they would be able to fly. Parking bays at these airports also got congested as several planes bound for Europe remained stationed there.
A Jet spokesperson said the private carrier would operate Newark-Mumbai-Newark and Toronto-Delhi-Toronto sectors by making a technical halt at Athens as an alternate temporary transit point through Europe.
"We have taken special permission from Directorate General of Civil Aviation" for this stopover, she said. However, Jet cancelled its flights bound for London and its European hub at Brussels scheduled for Sunday.
Air India too cancelled flights from Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Amritsar to London, Frankfurt, Chicago, New York, Washington, Toronto and Newark and vice versa till Monday.
"As the European Airspace continues to remain closed following the volcanic eruption in Iceland, Air India has suspended all westbound flights to Europe, USA and Canada on April 19," an AI spokesperson said, adding that the same flights scheduled for Sunday have also been cancelled.
Announcing closure of UK airspace till 0100 GMT tomorrow (0630 IST), British air navigation services NATS said "the restrictions currently in place across UK controlled airspace will remain in place until at least 0100 (UK time) Sunday. It is most unlikely that many flights will operate and anyone hoping to travel should contact their airline before travelling to the airport."
EUROCONTROL, which provides navigation services across Europe, said "no landings and take-offs are possible for civilian aircraft across most of North and Central Europe."
Though in some areas upper airspace was available, "it is difficult to access this airspace as in most cases the surrounding area is not available for flights".
Closure of airports has left hundreds of passengers stranded at various airports. Passengers claim that airlines were asking them to cancel their ticket and re-book, saying that they do not know when the flights would operate.
Some passengers complained that certain foreign carriers had refused to pay hotel bills after providing them accommodation for 24 hours.
"Airline officials today asked me to cancel my current booking and get myself re-booked to New York, where I was going to join my job," said P Bharadwaj, who works in a software firm in the US.
"For the past two days I have been staying in one of the hotels but now the airline does not want to bear the cost and has asked me to clear the bills on my own. This is not a professional approach by the airlines," he said.
Similar complaints were received from some other passengers also.
Last night, about 900 passengers were stranded at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. The passengers, most of whom were to fly by Jet Airways, were demanding priority booking from the airline, which it was not offering, they said.
IGI airport operator -- Delhi International Airport Limited -- has asked the passengers to confirm the status of flights with airlines before leaving for airport.
The parking bays at Delhi and Mumbai airports are getting choked due to the growing number of aircraft parked there due to the disruption in traffic.
More than 30 planes of various national and global carriers like Air France, Swiss, Lufthansa and others have been parked at the international apron, while some were parked on the taxiways near main and secondary runways.
