Tourists were stranded for hours and did not know what to do. "Later 18 of them were sent to Delhi by a bus," senior tourism industry leader Rajiv Tiwari told Agratoday.in.

Kingfisher officials said, "The problem was at their end. They had not given the permission. But these are initial hiccups. We expect a flight Monday afternoon."

However the Airport director Kuldeep Singh categorically stated the Airport or the DGCA had no role in this. "Don’t circulate rumors please," he pleaded. Ask the Airlines officials for explanation, he said.

Tourism sources in Agra said the tourists had boarded the plane in Delhi and till 3 pm they waited. After which they were told to get off. This was confirmed by a 4- member family from Australia which came to Agra in the evening by road.

Sandeep Arora, secretary, Federation of Travel Associations of India told Agratoday.in, "because of the misty bad weather, the flight was cancelled at the last minute. The permission was for the smaller run-way which does not have night landing instrumentation system. The other longer run-way, 10,000 feet, has the facility but that one is under repair and for that there is no permission. Now the question is why the air connectivity permission was given, and during the winter season it will be frequent problem. How will tourists decide in this uncertain environment."

President of the Agra Hotels and Restaurants Association Rakesh Chauhan, talking to Agratoday.in blamed politicians. "The MP from Firozabad, who earlier represented Agra, Raj Babbar from Congress wants to take credit for introducing air connectivity with Agra, but the BJP Lok Sabha member Ram Shankar Katheria opposed to Congress, wants to take all the credit..."

Agra Tourism industry leaders were upbeat and were waiting to welcome the guests by the inaugural flight. They have announced a slew of incentives to attract tourists to fly to Agra. The offer includes 20 percent discount on hotel rooms, traveling bills, handicrafts purchases to encourage tourists to fly to the Taj city.

Informed sources said the flight was cancelled because of bad weather, poor visibility. Rajiv Tiwari and others said the real reason was the technical snag. Installation of the night landing system has been completed long ago but it has not become operational nor green signaled for use by the DGCA. "Uncertainty prevails. We are going to Delhi on Monday to meet senior officials," Tiwari told.

If this continued it would be a disaster for the tourism trade, angry hoteliers and travel agents told Agratoday.in. "Just when we were expecting a turn around, we have been dismayed and shocked. A large number of visitors were expected to come to Agra from the F1. We have no idea what will happen tomorrow.

Right now there is no official explanation why the flight was not permitted. The local official blames the Airlines. The industry leaders blame the DGCA. The airport director calls them rumors.