Virgin airlines leaves passengers stranded at IGI for hours

NEW DELHI: The new Terminal III of the Indira Gandhi International Airport witnessed angry scenes when Britain's Virgin Atlantic Airlines did not run its scheduled flight to London, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded.

Virgin, for whom flights to India are a lucrative business, did not care to inform its passengers who came to the airport to take the flight (VS 301) to London's Heathrow yesterday.

The passengers came to airport only to be told that the flight which was scheduled to leave at 1:15 PM would actually leave some 16 hours later, on Sunday morning.

Upset passengers yelled at the unhelpful Virgin staff for not informing them about the huge delay and leaving them stranded. Passengers complained of rude behaviour by the airline staff, one of whom, Himani, said that they could not be held responsible for technical problems.

The passengers scrambled to find seats in other flights to London notably those of Jet and Kingfisher but they could accommodate only a few.

"We usually blame Air India for not bothering to keep the passengers informed but Virgin is far worse. The attitude of the staff was shocking," said one passenger.

Upset passengers later gave vent to their feelings on Twitter, vowing not to travel by Virgin again.