The Yangon-bound Air India flight got delayed for two hours and passengers had to wait inside the aircraft for more than an hour due to non-availability of the crew.
Delays by crew in reporting for duty resulted in Air India flights being held up for hours at the Delhi airport, leaving passengers stranded even after boarding the flight.
NO CREW AVAILABLE
The Yangon-bound Air India flight got delayed for hours and passengers had to wait inside the aircraft for more than an hour due to non-availability of the crew. According to Air India, the flight got delayed by almost two hours. Similarly, a Delhi-Mumbai flight got delayed by almost five hours as the staff never turned up. Later, Air India asked another set of crew to operate the flight. Sources have confirmed that few crew members of the Yangon flight also didn’t turn up.
“Flight AI-235 was going to Yangon and was scheduled to take off at 7.10am. Passengers were boarded but the management came to know that few crew members have not reached the airport. After almost an hour, when crew members couldn’t reach, the management decided to rope in other crew members so that flight could depart. Finally, this flight took off around 9:15am, with a delay of almost two hours,” a senior Air India official said.
Passengers said they had to wait inside the aircraft for over two hours due to the non-availability of crew.
TECHNICAL SNAG ADDS TO WOES
Similarly, another connecting flight scheduled to take off for Mumbai, supposed to reach Delhi from Shanghai, didn’t reach due to a technical snag. Passengers of this Dreamliner flight started protesting, as they were told that extra crew members are not available. Officials posted at IGI airport said passengers also shouted slogans against Air India. Later, the Air India management requested other crew members to operate the flight. “A flight which was supposed to reach Mumbai from Shanghai via Delhi didn’t come due to a technical snag. It took almost five hours to arrange other crew members. Passengers had to wait for hours due to which they started protesting,” sources said.
Last month, Union minister Venkaiah Naidu got angry with the national carrier after he had to cancel his visit to Hyderabad following a flight delay. Naidu who was slated to fly Air India to Hyderabad for an official engagement had to miss it because the pilot of the flight AI544 didn’t turn up on time.