Argument breaks out between passengers, AI staff over flight delay

NEW DELHI: Passengers of a Mumbai-bound Air India flight and airline staff were involved in a heated argument at Delhi airport after the flight was delayed by more than four hours.

The incident happened late Tuesday night, and the officials said that the flight was delayed by more than four hours which led to the verbal argument.

According to passengers, the Delhi-Mumbai flight was originally scheduled at around 8 p.m., however, it was delayed by over four hours due to some reasons and took off late at around 1.30 a.m.

Passengers waiting at the airport for the flight said that the airline staff kept assuring them that the flight would take off soon as the crew members were on the way.

However, they got into arguments following further delay of the flight. One of the staff said that the pilot of the plane could not arrive on time as he fell sick.

Some passengers also claimed that they may miss their connecting flights due to the delay.

According to the airline, the flight had been delayed due to technical reasons and the passengers were served meals and water.

According to the latest data of the DGCA, during January 2023, a total of 418 passenger related complaints had been received by the scheduled domestic airlines.

The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers in January were around 0.33. The major reasons for complaints are flight problems (27.3 per cent) followed by refund (23.7 per cent) and baggage (20.6 per cent).