pune the 12hour closure of the lohegaon airport runway starting january 8 next year for the modernization of air field infrastructure mafi project may leave hundreds of travellers either rescheduling their plans or cancelling them all togetheronline travel agents otas airline websites and travel companies continue to take early morning and late night bookings for the period post january 8 as neither the airport authority of india aai nor the airlines have got any formal notification from the lohegaon air force station afs about the work starting on january 8 sources in the industry said the time for runway closure is from 10pm to 10am a time slot that accommodates over 10 national and international flights starting from pune the work may continue for a period of three months said travel companies though airport officials still await a formal notification from the air force station the airport authorities have confirmed the scheduled date as january 8 though they may get a change of schedule from afs soon a travel company ceo told toi that once the notification from the indian air force goes to the airport authority of india airlines will have to reschedule their flights it may entail cancellation of some flights or multiple flights of the same airline to same destination being merged in case of cancellation the clients will be offered an alternative flight by the airline which may or may not suit their schedule if it does not they will be entitled for a full refund against cancellation but the traveler will have to book a ticket for an alternative flight at the prevailing market rates which is likely to be higher than that of the earlier ticket booked the travel company official said with no formal notification issued yet airlines have continued with the bookings though it may cause inconvenience to travellers at the 11th hour early morning flights from pune to cities like delhi bangalore and chennai are popular with business travellers as well as tourists with over 250 bookings made per day across the board for flights originating from pune said sources the airport runway is closed for civilian flights from 10 am to 5 pm on saturdays with the implementation of the mafi project travellers would not be able to fly from friday 10 pm till 5 pm the next day saturday this will affect leisure travellers as most of them prefer taking trips during weekends said a source another travel company source said that 10 to 20 bookings are made 30 days before the travel date by the time the air force issues a notification and the airlines revised their schedule of flights getting the same approved from the airport authority hundreds of travellers may have already booked themselves for january 8 and later this would mean a lot of cancellations and rescheduling the official said travel company executives said that runway closure in the night and early morning will be a hassle for business travellers for instance a business traveller