Air India cancels Mumbai-Jeddah flight after massive 8-hour delay
National carrier Air India canceled a Jeddah-bound flight from Mumbai via Hyderabad late yesterday night, eight hours after its scheduled departure time, without offering any reason to around 300 harried passengers for the inordinate delay. The flight, AI 965, was scheduled to take off at 3:00pm but the airline informed the passengers only around 11:00pm that it was being pulled out of operations.
Airline did offer hotel accommodation/taxi fares to stranded passengers
VKS Menon, one of the affected passengers who was flying with his wife and his elderly mother-in-law to Hyderabad, said that the airline staff wasn't forthcoming in offering any explanation for the delay and finally announced about the cancellation several hours later. Though the airline offered hotel accommodation/taxi fares to the stranded passengers, it didn't confirm the next flight details or details about refunds.
Reasons: Technical glitch, slot availability issue at Hyderabad airport
The double-decker Boeing 747 aircraft remained grounded for over 8 hours as the aircraft first suffered a technical glitch and then, there was slot availability issue at the Hyderabad airport. An Air India official had confirmed the delay earlier and said the airline was awaiting landing permission from the Hyderabad airport. However, no spokesperson of the aircraft was available for comments about the cancellation.
