Chaos at Varanasi Airport as IndiGo ground staff goes on a sudden strike

VARANASI: Passengers and staff at the Varanasi airport faced a tough time on Wednesday after the IndiGo support staff suddenly called for a strike. The Airport director complained of difficulties in handling the IndiGo passengers due to the immediate strike.

As per the airport director, the airline support staff called the strike over salary issues. "We are facing problems at Varanasi airport in dealing with IndiGo passengers as the airline's support staff has suddenly called for a strike over salary issues," he said in a statement on Wednesday adding that the IndiGo staff has not given notice to the Airports Authority of India. 

IndiGo has been facing a lot of flak in the past months due to repeated issues ranging from staff behavior to faulty engines. On March 29, an Indigo flight with 77 passengers and four crew members on board, plying between Tirupati and Hyderabad, suffered a tyre burst at the time of landing. Due to the tyre burst, there were sparks which the personnel at the airport noticed. The firefighting team was rushed to the aircraft to prevent any disaster. The incident took place at around 10.30 pm when the aircraft was landing. It led to panic among passengers but the individuals were safely evacuated.

On March 25, IndiGo grounded its A320 Neo aircraft fitted with Pratt&Whitney engine due to "oil chip issue" taking the total number of grounded NEOs to seven.

The Gurugram-based budget airline IndiGo on March 19 said that two aircraft were grounded after technical snag during departure. An A320 (neo) aircraft of the IndiGo was supposed to leave for Mumbai from Cochin. Another A320 (neo) aircraft was grounded immediately after departure at Mumbai airport.