Air India flight to Delhi aborts takeoff at Kochi; MP flags ordeal

Several passengers, including Members of Parliament, faced an unexpected delay at Kochi airport on Sunday night after a Delhi-bound Air India flight aborted its takeoff due to a technical snag.

"Something unusual with this flight AI 504, it just felt like the flight skid on the runway and hasn't taken off yet. Air India cancelled AI 504 and announced a new flight at 1 am which hasn't still started boarding, today is the third flight which has been AOG," Congress MP Hibi Eden from Ernakulam wrote on X.

A spokesperson of the airline said the flight AI504 operating from Kochi to Delhi was rescheduled after a technical issue was detected during the take-off. "The cockpit crew decided to discontinue the take-off run following standard operating procedures and brought the aircraft back to the bay for maintenance checks," he said.

The flight was to be operated with an Airbus A321 aircraft. The Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) said, "A technical issue caused an Air India flight bound for Delhi to abort the takeoff. Air India is rectifying it and has informed Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) that they are changing the aircraft. The expected new time of departure is 0100 hrs."

Earlier, Air India cancelled its Milan-Delhi flight on August 16 after detecting a maintenance issue at the last minute.

"Flight AI138 operating from Milan to Delhi on 16 August was cancelled due to a maintenance task identified during pushback, and subsequently due to the crew coming under the mandatory flight duty time limitation norms. Air India sincerely regrets the inconvenience caused to passengers due to this unforeseen cancellation," said the spokesperson.

The airline said the ground team in Milan extended immediate assistance to all affected passengers, providing hotel accommodation and offering full refunds on cancellation or complimentary rescheduling as opted by the passengers.

"Alternative arrangements were made to fly the passengers to their destination at the earliest. At Air India, the safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew remain top priority," the airline said.