Daily News & Analysis
   
MUMBAI, Aug 4: Dressed in her Sunday best, Preemin Barboza sat nervously in the Sahar airport. Her first flight wasn’t getting off the ground.

Barboza was to go to Dubai to meet her fiance (for which she was to take her maiden journey aboard a plane), but her flight had been cancelled.

Hong-Kong based Cathay Pacific had cancelled all flights from Hong Kong airport because of bad weather.

And so, the flight CX 751, supposed to land in Mumbai from Hong Kong and ferry Barboza to Dubai, did not arrive.

The plane was to take off from Mumbai at 8.30 pm. “I have to reach Dubai tomorrow, I just hope they can put me in another flight,” said Barboza.

As of late Thursday evening, however, the flight hadn’t been rescheduled. Veera D’Souza, resident of Dubai, said she had reached three hours before the scheduled departure of the flight.

She said she had relatives in Mumbai, and she would spend the night at their house.

The airline has shifted the stranded passengers to the nearby Hyatt Regency hotel. But Avnit Sharma isn’t complaining. He said he and his family were shifted to the hotel promptly after the flight was cancelled.

Sharma had come with his wife and six-year-old son from Mathura to catch the Dubai flight. He said he was anxious to get back to his work in Dubai.

In a faxed statement, Cathay said, “Cathay Pacific operations have been severely affected by excessive winds in and around Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok today.

The track of Typhoon Prapiroon took an unexpected turn to the north which resulted in the local weather conditions deteriorating.” No other airline has cancelled its flights.