Air services in Europe resume,fliers heave a sigh of relief

“The earliest flight I was offered out of Mumbai to London is on December 23. But there is no way I will get tickets for Switzerland on that day,so close to Christmas,” she said. To get home earlier,Hini has charted out a roundabout route. She will be traveling to Abu Dhabi on a Monday night and then take a connecting flight to Munich and then figure out a way to get back home to spend the Christmas holiday with her family. There was some relief for city passengers who were stuck in UK after Heathrow and Gatwick airports were able to resume operations on Monday. “Because of the backlog,there were some delays,but passengers have been able to get seats back to Mumbai,” said Anoop Kanuga,a travel agent in Mumbai.

This has also affected cargo movements out of Mumbai airport to London. Since Friday night,cargo agents say airlines have not been accepting consignment to London. “Many consignments to Canada are routed via London,some of these consignment that was already in transit are stuck at London airport as flights have not been able to operate,” said Mahesh Thakkar,a cargo agent,who also has two consignments waiting to move out of London airport.

Since Sunday,flower exports to UK have also been on hold. “We were able to successfully send our exports specifically for Christmas as they had been sent well in advance. But all our export consignments since Sunday have been on on hold,” said Megha Borse,president of the flower growers association,Maharashtra.