Festive Plans Go Awry - Air India’s Christmas Shocker for Gulf Passengers

Mangalore: For many of Gulf-bound passengers this Christmas, Air India Express turned into festive spirit dampener when their flights failed to take-off on scheduled time.
Several flights bound to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, and Kuwait were either cancelled or delayed for hours and the result unbelievable inconvenience faced by the passengers. The chaos witnessed at Mangalore Airport was one of the worst in the recent times.
Several passengers were very expressive of their dissent that the Air India officials were rendered helpless as far as effectively managing the irked passengers or in calming their nerves were concerned. Many passengers, who were successful in getting a ticket during the Christmas paying thrice the amount lost their temper and gave the local staff their piece of mind, while few other passengers were seen pleading other airlines to start a direct service in order to avoid Air India Express in the future. Certainly, the officials here had to pay the price for irresponsible attitude of top officials in Mumbai.
On December 24, 2009 Dubai-bound flight was delayed for good 24-hours, finally taking off only on the next day. But passengers waiting to reach other destinations were in for greater shock with flights either being rescheduled or cancelled at the last moment even on the day of Christmas.
The efforts were made by Air India local staff to accommodate Dubai passengers in the night flight, and some of them were sent through Indian Airlines via Mumbai. The unprofessional approach and plans going awry resulted in greater trouble for the passengers for many of flight commandants had gone on Christmas leaves, especially the commandants of foreign origin who were away on at least a weeklong holiday from December 24 onwards.
26/12/09 Daijiworld.com

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