Technical fault delays Air India Express flight, sparks protest at Kannur airport

Passengers protested at Kannur International Airport on Monday morning after an Air India Express flight to Thiruvananthapuram was delayed by several hours following a technical problem with the incoming aircraft.

Television footage showed angry passengers confronting airline personnel and alleging that they had not received advance notice of the revised departure time.

The Thiruvananthapuram-bound service was scheduled to leave Kannur at around 7 am but was postponed until approximately 1 pm.

Airline sources said the aircraft assigned to the route was arriving from Muscat. Its departure from the Omani capital was delayed after it was grounded because of a technical issue.

“Therefore, the flight to Thiruvananthapuram got delayed. The flight from Muscat arrived subsequently and the flight to Thiruvananthapuram will leave shortly. The passengers were informed about the delay in advance. Those who protested at the airport were aware of the delay,” an airline official said.

The carrier offered affected passengers the option of receiving a refund or rescheduling their journey, the official added.

Conflicting accounts also emerged over the status of a separate Air India Express flight from Kannur to Dubai.

The airline official maintained that no Dubai-bound service had been cancelled because of the disruption. Airport sources, however, claimed earlier in the morning that the flight had been cancelled following the grounding of the aircraft in Muscat and that some of its passengers had also joined the protest.

With PTI inputs