By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, June 9: Annoyed over the lack of professionalism displayed by FlyBig, the Shillong Airport has written a strongly worded letter to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) urging the statutory body to impose penalty on the company for its casual approach towards civil aviation, besides cancelling all the slots made available to the company for the whole summer schedule.
The development comes as a setback for the citizens of the state who have been aspiring for dedicated and regular air connectivity from Shillong to the rest of the country.
In its letter to the AAI, the authorities of Shillong Airport mentioned that FlyBig, which has been assigned the task of operating on the Delhi-Shillong route, delayed their flight by 2 hours 59 minutes on May 2. The company did not operate on May 6 due to engineering and operational issues, the letter said.
On May 9, the company again delayed their operations by 2 hours 25 minutes while they cancelled their operations on May 13 and May 16 allegedly owing to bad weather and technical snag, the letter added.
The authorities of Shillong Airport also mentioned that FlyBig operated partially on May 20 as they diverted the flight to Guwahati mentioning the aerodrome operating minima (AOM) of 2,300 metres whereas other companies operated on an AOM of 1,500 metres. Aerodrome operating minima are criteria used by pilots to determine whether they may land or take off from any runway.
In addition, FlyBig delayed its operation by more than an hour on May 23, 27 and 30, while they did not operate on June 3. They again cancelled their operation on June 6 without alerting the Shillong Airport even though all arrangements were in place, the letter to AAI stated.
A source from Shillong Airport said that the airport has increased their watch hours by three hours without provision of additional manpower for the operation of FlyBig.
Incidentally, the company submitted a letter to Shillong Airport on Thursday announcing cancellation of their operations till July 1. They had cancelled all bookings since June 5 through their website.
The source also disclosed that similar complaints of delayed operation by FlyBig have been reported from Agartala and Rupsi (Assam) airports following which the AAI had served an ultimatum to the company.