Desperate fliers look for options

Their friend Robert Majchrzay (24),heading for Warsaw,has fingers crossed as a few Eastern European airports are allowing limited operations. German tourists,Laure Fourchaud (29),Mena Marth (31),Andreas Wessel (31),Boris Leneve and Guillaume Dufloux ,invited to a friend’s wedding in Mangalore,chose to come a week in advance and bag-pack to Goa and Cochin. They’ve been stranded for three days and are staying at a friend’s place. “We tried to contact the airline (Lufthansa) but there is no response. Their toll-free number is always engaged. Their airport office is not helping,” said Mena.

On Tuesday,two Britons at a hotel in Fort will move to a YWCA hostel.  “This is our fourth day,fifth night waiting in Mumbai,it has been dreadful,” said one of them,preferring anonymity.

Product developers for Brazil’s second largest chain of clothing stores,Lojas Renner,Rafael Barcellos and Fabion Madeiros landed in Mumbai on Sunday night for an assignment with an Andheri-based production house in Mumbai. “Our London flight has been cancelled. We’re looking at other options,” said Barcellos.

“I booked a passenger today on a flight to Athens. She paid around Rs 30,000 to get to Brussels tomorrow,but now she is willing to shell out Rs 1 lakh..,” said Jay Bhatia,a travel agent.

On Monday,Bhatia routed another group of passengers to Washington via Doha. “They were booked on American Airlines and Air Canada. These airlines are not refunding money because of the closure as they are operating within the country. If these passengers miss the internal flights,then they will have to bear the losses,” he said.