An Air India flight to San Francisco was delayed by over 20 hours due to multiple reasons. Flight AI 183, originally scheduled to take off at 3.20 pm on Thursday was rescheduled to depart at 11 am on Friday.
The passengers were allegedly made to wait without proper air-conditioning, causing several of them to faint.
A passenger, Shweta Punj, took to X: “If there is a privatisation story that has failed it is Air India. DGCA [aviation regulator] AI 183 flight has been delayed for over eight hours, passengers were made to board the plane without air-conditioning, and then deplaned after some people fainted in the flight. This is inhuman,”
If there is a privatisation story that has failed it is @airindia @DGCAIndia AI 183 flight has been delayed for over 8 hours , passengers were made to board the plane without air conditioning, and then deplaned after some people fainted in the flight.This is inhuman
Responding to Punj’s post, Air India said: “Dear Ms. Punj, we truly regret to note the disruptions. Please rest assured that our team is actively working to address the delay and appreciates your ongoing support and understanding. We are also alerting our team to provide necessary assistance to the passengers.”
Last week, too, an Air India flight suffered an inordinate delay while passengers were made to wait without proper assistance.
The Air India flight from Mumbai to San Francisco was delayed by over 25 hours.
During this time, passengers had to sit inside the passenger cabin for around six hours with poor air-conditioning.
Aviation watchdog DGCA on Friday issued a show-cause notice to Air India for inordinate delay of at least two international flights and failure to take due care of passengers.
The regulator mentioned about the inordinate delay of two international flights -- AI 183 from Delhi to San Francisco on May 30 and AI 179 from Mumbai to San Francisco on May 24.
Both flights were delayed and passengers were put to discomfort due to insufficient cooling in the cabin. Further, repeated incidents of passengers being put to discomfort by Air India in violation of DGCA norms have come to the notice of the regulator, as per the show-cause notice.
The regulator also noted that Air India is "time and again failing in taking due care of passengers", and not complying with its provisions related to 'facilities to be provided to passengers by airlines due to denied boarding, cancellation of flights and delays in flights"
"Air India is hereby called upon to show cause as to why enforcement action shall not be initiated against the airline," for the violations, the regulator said.
An official said Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia took cognisance of the flight delays and inconvenience caused to passengers, following which the DGCA issued the show-cause notice.
