New Delhi, November 18
There was anger, frustration and helplessness among nearly a thousand passengers of five Air-India flights, which were delayed for hours at the Indira Gandhi International airport here due to technical problems. Another flight of the airlines from Dubai arrived at Kozhikode almost 24 hours behind its schedule due to fog.
The passengers of Amritsar-Delhi-Birmingham-Toronto, Delhi-Abu Dhabi-Muscat,
Delhi-Bangkok-Shanghai, Delhi-London-New York and Delhi-Dubai flights had a harrowing time since yesterday without food, water and sleep following hours of delay with Air-India officials “hiding” to avoid passengers’ fury.
“I have been here since last evening. I still don’t know when my flight to Dubai will leave, it is almost 24 hours,” Mohammad Aftab, a Lucknow resident, said.
He said the most frustrating part of his “long and bad experience” was that no Air-India official was available to give the passengers a correct picture of the situation.
While the Dubai flight is delayed by nearly 24 hours, the Amritsar-Delhi-Birmingham-Toronto flight departed after about 12 hours.
The Delhi-Bangkok-Shanghai left after five hours delay while the Delhi-London-New York flight was expected to leave later in the day, airport sources said, as the crew was requested to extend their “flight duty time limitation” and operate the aircraft.
“I have decided not to fly again with Air-India. They follow no rule, no regulations and have no standards. They offered no food, water and accommodation, a must for any air carrier to give to passengers in case of delay,” A.H. Singh, a resident of London, said.
However, an Air-India spokesperson said five flights, which were delayed, had taken off and an inquiry had been ordered to find out the reasons for the delay and responsibility would be fixed. He said the delay was between two or six hours.
— PTI
