AI flight delayed again,passengers blamed

An AI spokesperson confirmed the plane had been delayed because of transit passengers coming into Mumbai from international destinations. “There were a lot of transit passengers and a lot of movement. When they boarded,some passengers took up the issue of the delay. There was no fight on board. When we explained why the delay had happened,the passengers allowed the plane to take off,” he said. The plane that was to leave for Bangalore at 1 am,left around 5 am.

Incidentally,a few hours prior to that,a Delhi-Chennai AI flight was delayed by two-and-a-half hours as a cabin crew member reported late. “We had four cabin crew and were short of one member who was caught in traffic. We could have released the flight,but decided to follow the standard crew complement,” said an AI spokesperson in Delhi. The flight departed at 10.35 pm instead of 8 pm,he said.

Meanwhile,a day after Air India said it had initiated action against its cabin crew for the delay at Cairo,the cabin crew association struck back saying the cabin crew were being made the “scapegoat”. On April 15,the Mumbai-Toronto flight was delayed by over 16 hours. “Our investigations reveal none of the 54 cabin crew,present in the hotel at Cairo,were intimated of any impending arrival or departure of the flight at Cairo to either India or USA. The crew who went for sightseeing were not even on call as no flight was scheduled,” said Sanjay Lazar,General Secretary,All India Cabin Crew Association.

“The cabin crew is being made a scapegoat for administrative inefficiencies and callousness of all other agencies handling these flights routed via Cairo,” Lazar said.