Air India’s Vancouver flight from Delhi of June 1 finally departed at 3.15 a.m. on June 2 after a delay of nearly 22 hours, a source said.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Air India’s Vancouver flight from Delhi of June 1 finally departed at 3.15 a.m. on June 2 after a delay of nearly 22 hours, a source said.

The flight was scheduled to take off at 5.30 a.m. on June 1 but a “technical” issue forced the airline to reschedule it.

“The Delhi-Vancouver flight of Air India, which was to depart on Saturday morning, finally left at around 3.15 a.m. on Sunday,” the source said.

“AI 185…was delayed because of technical issues and subsequently due to crew coming under the mandatory Flight Duty Time Limitations,” an Air India spokesperson had said in a statement on June 1.

This was at least the third time in the last one week that Air India’s ultra-long haul flights had to face inordinate delay for one reason or the other.

Earlier, after a delay of more than 30 hours, the airline’s Delhi-San Francisco flight, which was originally scheduled to depart at around 1530 hrs on May 30, took off at 2155 hrs the next day.

However, despite the passengers’ plight due to the massive delay, Tata Group-owned Air India did not issue any official statement.

“If there is a privatisation story that has failed it is @airindia @DGCAIndia AI 183 flight has been delayed for over 8 hours , passengers were made to board the plane without air conditioning, and then deplaned after some people fainted in the flight.This is inhuman! @JM_Scindia,” Shweta Punj, a journalist had said in a post on X on May 30 night.

Air India, which was earlier under the ownership of the Indian government, was privatised and handed over to Tata Group in January 2022.

On May 30, the airline apologised and offered a travel voucher of $350 each to the passengers of the San Francisco flight for the huge delay, owing to multiple factors including non-functioning of the Boeing 777 aircraft’s air-conditioning system.

The previous day, aviation regulator DGCA issued a show cause notice to Air India for some flight delays and failure to take due care of the passengers.

In the show cause notice, the watchdog mentioned the inordinate delay of two international flights — AI 183 from Delhi to San Francisco on May 30 and AI 179 from Mumbai to San Francisco on May 24.

An Air India flight. File
| Photo Credit: ANI

Air India has apologised and offered a travel voucher of $350 each to the passengers of the San Francisco flight that took off from the national capital after a delay of more than 30 hours.

There were 199 passengers in the flight, according to a source.

After a delay of over 30 hours, the flight took off from the national capital at 9:55 p.m. on Friday and landed at San Francisco at 12:45 p.m. (IST) on Saturday. The flight duration was around 16 hours.

“Please allow me to sincerely apologise, on behalf of Air India, for the extended delay in bringing you to San Francisco, which was caused by several technical delays and other operational constraints,” Air India Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Klaus Goersch said in a letter to the flight’s passengers.

As a gesture of apology, Air India has offered a “travel voucher worth $350” for future travel with the airline, the letter dated May 31 said.

The passengers will also have the option to credit the amount instead of using it for travel.

“We are very sorry for this lapse in our service and the inconvenience caused to you,” Mr. Goersch said in the letter.

The Delhi-San Francisco flight that was originally scheduled to take off at around 3:30 p.m. on Thursday faced an inordinate delay due to various factors, including technical glitch, non-functional air-conditioning system, and payload issues.

On Friday, aviation regulator DGCA issued a show cause notice to Air India for some flight delays and failure to take due care of the passengers.

In the show cause notice, the watchdog mentioned the inordinate delay of two international flights – AI 183 from Delhi to San Francisco on May 30 and AI 179 from Mumbai to San Francisco on May 24.