Dubai-Bound Air India Flight Delay Strands Hundreds At Mumbai Airport

Hundreds of passengers were left stranded at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on Saturday after an Air India flight to Dubai failed to depart as scheduled.

The flight, scheduled for 8:25 a.m., faced delays with no clear updates from the airline. Passengers who boarded the aircraft were disembarked after four hours of waiting. Travellers alleged that Air India failed to communicate whether the flight would be rescheduled or cancelled.

“The airline disembarked passengers and has now refused to provide basic services, including arranging for meals. The airline has also failed to provide a disruption statement to passengers to claim compensation as per norms,” Deepak Phalak, one of the passengers on the flight, told NDTV Profit.

The details of the total number of passengers stranded were not known immediately. However, to be sure, Air India was said to operate the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner for this route on Saturday, according to the data available on the flight tracking website Flightradar24. The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner typically has a passenger capacity of as much as 296, according to its website.

Attempts to seek clarification from the airline yielded no response. Air India did not respond to a query from NDTV Profit regarding the incident.

This incident highlights ongoing issues with Air India's operational reliability. The airline has faced increasing challenges in maintaining its on-time performance (OTP) since it was privatised. Complaints about delayed departures and inadequate communication have grown, raising concerns among passengers and stakeholders.

Prolonged delays have become a recurring issue for Air India. On May 24, Air India's Mumbai-San Francisco flight was delayed by 18 hours, leaving passengers stranded without adequate updates or arrangements. Similarly, a Delhi-San Francisco flight on May 30 also faced significant delays, drawing criticism from affected travellers and aviation regulators to probe the incident.

The deteriorating OTP has put pressure on the airline to address operational inefficiencies. Frequent disruptions are impacting passenger confidence and tarnishing Air India's efforts to compete in an increasingly competitive aviation market.

NDTV Profit managed to reach out to passengers at Mumbai airport, who expressed frustration over the lack of timely communication and arrangements during such incidents. Many demanded that the airline implement measures to improve scheduling reliability and enhance customer support to address delays more effectively.