Technical snag delays Air India flight to Dubai by 6 hours

KOZHIKODE: An Air India flight to Dubai from Calicut International Airport was delayed for more than six hours due to a technical snag and the agitated passengers had a quarrel with the Air India staff as they failed to take care of their needs and they were unsure of their departure.

Boarding of AI-937, scheduled to take off at 10 am, was indefinitely delayed without proper communication. Later the Air India officials told the passengers it was suspended due to technical reasons.

Passengers then started shouting at the staff as they were made to wait for six long hours and the airline officials failed to supply any refreshments.

“They were not responding to the questions of the passengers properly and that irritated them. Passengers were not told about the possible time of departure,” an airport staff told DC.

The flight finally took off around 4.45 pm after the engineering department corrected the technical issue.

“The passengers had to report three hours prior to the departure as it’s an international flight. So totally they had to wait for more than 10 hours at the airport. The airline staff could have provided them refreshments and told them what the problem was,” he said.

Air India’s officials at the airport were unavailable for comment. Nobody even picked up their phone at the airport terminal even after repeated attempts.