Air India’s Phuket-Delhi flight troubles: 5-hour journey turns into a 4-day ordeal

NEW DELHI: What was supposed to be a five-hour Phuket-Delhi flight has turned out to be a four-day nightmare for many passengers of an Air India flight. Their ordeal started on Nov 16 when AI 377 was scheduled to take off at 5.50 pm (local time) to Delhi with 142 passengers. However, the Airbus A320 (VT-EDD) could not take off due to technical and crew flight duty time limitation issues, say sources
The next day the aircraft took off from Phuket at 8.44 pm and returned to the Thai beach city after 3.5 hours following a snag. Now AI sources say the airline plans to fly home the about 30-35 passengers still in Phuket on Wednesday. If that happens, these people would have reached Delhi four days after they were originally supposed to.
“The airline provided them hotel accommodation in Phuket when the Nov 16 flight was cancelled. A majority of the 142 people supposed to travel AI 377 that day have either cancelled their ticket and made other arrangements to return to Delhi. Now about 30-35 passengers remain in Phuket who are likely to be flown back on Wednesday,” said AI sources.
In a statement, AI said: “Air India sincerely regrets the inconvenience to passengers of Flight AI-377 operating from Phuket to Delhi on Nov 16 which was cancelled due to a technical issue. While our staff on the ground made efforts to minimise their inconvenience, providing all on-ground assistance including hotel accommodations and meals, some of the guests were also reaccommodated on alternatively available flights. Passengers were also offered options for full refunds on cancellation and complimentary rescheduling. At Air India, the safety and security of our passengers and crew is top priority.”