With holidayers away on their trips during the Eid-Ganpati week, the passenger load on flights witnessed a slide that has forced airlines to club together several of their flights scheduled for Thursday as per a report in TOI by Chinmayi Shalya.

A source at the airport said many flights between Delhi and Mumbai have been clubbed together as there were not enough passengers to fill all the seats. The flyers were informed of the changes in their flights well ahead of time. "Usually, the passenger traffic is exceptionally heavy early in the morning. So, most airlines schedule their flights in the morning.

To top it, Mumbai-Delhi or vice-versa is the busiest sector. But with most people leaving for a holiday on Tuesday or choosing to remain at home for the festivals, flights were suddenly empty on Wednesday and Thursday," said an airport official. "Though a few flights were clubbed on Wednesday, many changes have been made for morning flights on Thursday."

An airport official said a private airline, which operates six flights from Delhi to Mumbai between 6.30 am and noon, has cancelled three of them. Another major airline, which has four flights in the Delhi-Mumbai sector till 10 am, has cancelled two and accommodated all the passengers in its other flights that are only half full. Similarly, many flights from Mumbai to Delhi have been called off.

A full-service carrier with a low-cost airline subsidiary has cancelled two of its six flights between 6 am and 11.30 am. A full-service carrier with two subsidiary (low-cost) wings has also cancelled three of its five flights from Mumbai to Delhi in the morning. Low-cost-carriers also cancelled a few flights in the same sector. It's not only the Mumbai-Delhi sector, but a similar trend was witnessed for flights to Bangalore as well.