The Covid wave has made travel plans for international fliers, those scheduled to return from Calcutta after a vacation, or coming back to the city, go haywire.
Hundreds of bookings have been cancelled in the last few days since the fresh surge started taking place. Several people, who were scheduled to return to their workplaces in other countries have tested positive and had to postpone their journey while few others have brought forward their dates of travel, fearing that they might contact the virus as the city is swarmed by Covid cases.
Adding to the woes is the state government’s decision to restrict flights from Delhi and Mumbai to Bengal only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays due to rise in Covid cases in these two cities. Tour operators said many international fliers who were supposed to take the connecting flights from these cities to Calcutta are now facing problems.
Priyoma Mustafi, who is pursuing her PhD in economics in Pittsburgh in the US, had come to visit her parents in Calcutta on December 17 and was supposed to return on January 8.
“However, she tested positive for Covid on January 1 and so I called up my tour operator to cancel her ticket,” said her father Gurudas Mustafi, a resident of Jodhpur Park. “Only after she tests negative, my daughter can book a ticket,” he said.
Another Calcuttan, staying in Washington, had booked his return ticket from Calcutta on January 11. However, Upamanyu Dutta, decided to return early. A friend said he booked his ticket on January 6 morning via Doha after testing negative.
“The sudden surge has caught everyone off guard and domestic and international travel plans have gone haywire. We are struggling to make rebookings,” said Anil Punjabi, chairman, east, Travel Agents Federation of India.
Along with Covid infection, the three-day week restriction of flights to Bengal from Delhi and Mumbai has also led to severe inconvenience to passengers. Anuradha Sanyal and her husband Prabir have gone to Newark to visit family members and were scheduled to return to Calcutta through Delhi on January 12.
“However, our tour operator said the flight from Delhi has been cancelled although it’s a Wednesday,” she said. The couple will now return next day through Mumbai.
Another Calcuttan, Rishavraj Das who now stays in Vancouver in Canada had come to the city on vacation on December 18 and had an early morning return flight from Delhi on January 26. He had booked a flight from Calcutta to Delhi on January 25 which has been cancelled.
“Now I will have to reach Delhi a day earlier and stay in a hotel, which makes me feel unsafe,” said Das on Thursday.
An official of an airline said although there were no restrictions on flights operating from Bengal to Delhi and Mumbai, they had to cancel several flights because of logistic issues.
“There are huge refunds and rebookings. We are forced to offer passengers tickets on flights through other cities which would take much more time as they have to change aircraft,” said the official.
A passenger said he was offered a flight from Delhi to Calcutta via Bhubaneswar. The flight to Bhubaneswar would take off from Delhi at 5.50am but the connecting flight would reach Calcutta at 2.30pm. Usually it takes around two hours to fly between Calcutta and Delhi.