New Delhi: Passengers travelling to Nepal demonstrated a protest at Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru after repeatedly witnessing disruptions to their Kathmandu-bound flight, leading to chaos and inconvenience to the passengers. The protestors raised slogans and demanded immediate action.
The passengers were brought back to Bengaluru after multiple failed landing attempts, triggering travellers to confront airline staff and raise voices against mismanagement and poor communication.
At least 180 travellers were on board the Air India Express service, PTI reported. The flight took off at around 10:30 am from Bengaluru to Kathmandu on Thursday, but returned to Bengaluru without giving information to passengers about the situation.
The flight again attempted to complete the journey the next day, but then again failed to land and diverted to Lucknow. Passengers were stranded for several hours after landing in Lucknow.
“We were kept inside the plane for hours without proper information. No one clearly explained what was happening,” a passenger said during the protest, according to news agency PTI.
Several passengers said they spent more than 30 hours in the airport following the disruption. In Lucknow, the passengers were exhausted and frustrated, resulting in a protest onboard, and then the airline took them back to Bengaluru.
After passengers returned to Bengaluru, they staged a protest near the immigration counters, alleging the airline wasted their Nepal trip. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) intervened in the matter and tried to calm down the travellers.
“Our entire Nepal trip has been ruined. We planned this well in advance and suffered financial losses,” another passenger said, as cited by PTI.
Air India response
Air India Express stated that the disruption to the weather conditions in Kathmandu led to the incident.
“Due to adverse weather in Kathmandu, our Bengaluru-Kathmandu flights on 26 and 27 February were diverted. An additional flight operated today to recover guests from yesterday’s disrupted service was also diverted for the same reason,” the airline said in a statement.
The airline confirmed that the recovery flight is planned for the passengers and also regretted the inconvenience to the travellers.