Srinagar, Feb 05: The Air India left its passengers stranded for more than six hours on Tuesday.
Passengers in the Air India’s Srinagar-bound flight which was scheduled to depart Delhi at 7: 25 am and arrive in Srinagar at 8: 40 am, said they had to brave over six hours of delay.
“AI 827 Delhi-Srinagar flight with 160 passengers on board was delayed due to the lackadaisical approach of the airliner,” a passenger told ‘Kashmir Images’.
It is worth mentioning that AI 827 was a Delhi-bound connected flight from Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) airport and after reaching Delhi, it was supposed to leave for Srinagar at 7: 25 am.
After an initial delay, passengers got text messages on their mobile numbers informing that the “flight shall depart at 0925 hours”. When the rescheduled time passed, they again received text, informing that “flight shall depart at 1100 hours”, the flyers said.
The inconvenience did not end here, after boarding the flight at 12: 30 pm, the flyers were made to sit for more than a hour on seats.
Before taking off, the captain of the aircraft apologized for the inconvenience caused to passengers and shifted blame on the operational department.
“I seek apology for the delay which happened due to our operational department. I am at the airport for four hours now; even I didn’t get any communication about take off. Weather in Delhi and Srinagar is also clear,” he said during in-flight passenger announcement.
The passengers, who are up in arms against government-owned airliner for taking them for granted, said, “Air India is using connected international flights to ferry domestic passengers only to earn money.”
The passengers also told ‘Kashmir Images’ that they were not served any food – though tea was offered during their 6-hour stay at Delhi airport.
The passengers waiting at Srinagar for their flight also had to meet inconvenience due to this delay.
