SpiceJet's Trichy-Chennai flight cancelled

TRICHY: SpiceJet launched its inaugural flight to Colombo from Madurai on Thursday with much fanfare. But what many did not know was that the usual Trichy-Chennai SpiceJet was cancelled on the same day. Passengers speculated that this Chennai-Trichy-Chennai SpiceJet was diverted to Madurai-Colomobo-Madurai, and the neglect of Trichy's airport was complete as Friday's Chennai-Trichy-Chennai service too was cancelled.
Denying that the Trichy flight was diverted to Colombo, a SpiceJet manager said, "There were many cancellations on Thursday due to technical reasons." A ticketing staff said fewer than 12 passengers had been booked on the Trichy-Chennai 70-seater flight on Thursday, and it was cancelled due to commercial reasons. Those passengers who had booked on SpiceJet on Thursday and Friday were refunded. However, the Saturday flight would resume as scheduled, said the staff. There are three flights to Chennai from Trichy daily; SpiceJet operates one at 5.30, and the other two services are operated by Jet Airways at 3.50 pm and 7.30 pm respectively. Kingfisher, that was operating to Colombo and Chennai until five months ago, has been grounded indefinitely.
Passengers are worried that Trichy is slowly and steadily being neglected since the PM announced that it would be elevated to an international airport, feel residents of the city. Moreover, this airport does not as yet operate domestic services to cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Cochin, Coimbatore or even Trivandrum. Indigo, India's low-cost carrier that operates two daily services to New Delhi via Chennai and Mumbai, has yet to land in Trichy.