GoAir cancels 19 flights across destinations as airline grapples with shortage of aircraft, pilots; thousands of passengers stranded

Mumbai: Wadia group-owned GoAir suspended some of its services for the second consecutive day on Tuesday as it cancelled 19 flights across destinations, leaving thousands of passengers stranded, a source said.The city-headquartered airline had cancelled 21 flights on Monday, owning to the non-availability of some of the aircraft and inadequate operating crew. The company had, however, attributed the non-operations of these flights to protests against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), hostile weather and the duty norms for the cockpit crew, among others.[caption id="attachment_2232588" align="alignleft" width="380"]

Representational image. Reuters[/caption]The airline operates over 200 flights per day to domestic and international destinations with a fleet of 57 aircraft."GoAir has cancelled 19 flights so far today (Tuesday) as it grapples with shortage of aircraft and pilots," a source in the know of the development told PTI.Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Patna and Lucknow, among others, are the cities from where these flights have been cancelled, he said.Response to queries sent to GoAir management is awaited.GoAir has reported a series of mid-air incidents of engine glitches, leading to the grounding of planes with such engines.On Monday, the airline was forced to ground an A320 plane, which had to land in Guwahati shortly after departing for Kolkata following the pilot detecting a "minor" technical problem.On Sunday also, GoAir's Chandigarh flight from Mumbai was diverted back to the city due to a technical snag. In this incident also, the airline had to take the aircraft out of operations and deploy another plane to fly the stranded passengers to their destination.