VVIPs spoil the party for ticket holders

Several fans missed a large portion of the match as commercial flights to Chandigarh were delayed by hours because of VVIP aircraft movement; planes had to depart immediately because of lack of space in the hangar

Die-hard cricket fans lucky enough to get tickets for the India-Pakistan semi-final at Mohali were in for a rude shock yesterday when VVIP movement at the Chandigarh airport disrupted the movement of other commercial and chartered flights.

Pakistan PM Yousuf Raza Gilani alights from his aircraft at Chandigarh

Mahesh Kumar, whose chartered flight from Mumbai was supposed to reach Chandigarh airport at 12.30 pm, missed more than an hour of the match because the plane touched down only at 3 pm.

"We were told that the flight would land at Chandigarh at 12.30 pm, but were informed just a short while later that there would be a delay of nearly two hours because our aircraft wasn't getting Air Traffic Control (ATC) clearance for landing. I reached the stadium more than an hour after the match began."

Kabeer (35) and his wife, Anamika, left their Noida home around 9.30 am to catch the 1 pm Air India flight from New Delhi to Chandigarh.

"When we were leaving the house, we thought that we would enter the stadium latest by 3 pm as we were carrying no check-in baggage.
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Around 2 pm, the flight captain announced that there would be a slight delay in landing due to heavy traffic. Many passengers complained to the flight crew that they would miss the match, but the crew members pleaded helplessness," said Kabeer.

His wife, Anamika, who was carrying a big Tricolour to cheer Team India, was also disappointed. "Why does the common man always have to suffer because of VIP visits? Had the VIPs not been going for the match, we would have reached the stadium on time.

"We missed nearly 20 crucial overs of the match, including a big portion of Sachin's innings because of the delay. Kabeer had to run to the stadium with our five-year-old son on his back," she said.

Officialspeak

An ATC official from Chandigarh airport said, "Most of the scheduled commercial flights were supposed to land in the afternoon, but we had to delay them because of the VVIP movement."

Airport officials said no commercial flights were allowed to land for an hour and fifteen minutes between 12.25 pm and 1.40 pm because the aircraft of the Indian and Pakistani prime ministers were scheduled to touch down.

Yousuf Raza Gilani's aircraft reached Chandigarh at 12.30 pm, while Manmohan Singh's aircraft landed at 1.25 pm.

A Go Air flight from Mumbai-Chandigarh was also delayed by half an hour, "The scheduled time was 11.10 am, but the aircraft it landed at 11.43 am.

There was a lot of congestion as the Chandigarh airport is smaller and many chartered planes were scheduled to land. The airport authorities were doing their best to avoid delays," said a Go Air spokesperson.

Since the Chandigarh airport has space for only five aircraft in its hangar, only the VVIP planes were allowed to park there.

"No aircraft other than the VVIP ones were allowed to park at the airport. All the commercial flights landing at the airport were asked to leave for Bareilly, Amritsar, Delhi or Jaipur for parking," said an official.

Overwhelmed

Chandigarh airport normally sees close to 12 flight movements in a day

The match ensured that more than 85 flights, including VVIP ones, were scheduled to land.

A special screening system was installed at the Chandigarh airport to check baggage because of the high volume of passengers.

Around 200 extra CISF officials were moved to Chandigarh airport from Delhi
for security purposes.

A few airlines also had special flights departing from Chandigarh in the night to take fans back to their home cities.