Air India offers compensation to passengers after 30-hour flight delay

Air India faced significant delays on its Delhi to San Francisco flight on June 1, lasting over 30 hours. 

A combination of technical challenges and other operational constraints caused the disruptions. In response, the airline has taken steps to compensate affected passengers.

Air India's Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Klaus Goersch, personally addressed the situation in a letter to passengers. 

He expressed regret for the inconvenience caused by the prolonged delay and emphasized the airline's commitment to passenger satisfaction.

As a gesture of goodwill, Air India has offered each of the more than 200 affected passengers an apology voucher worth $350 (approximately Rs 29,000). 

Passengers can use this voucher for future travel with the airline. The compensation aims to alleviate the frustration and inconvenience experienced during the ordeal.

The flight, originally scheduled to depart from Delhi at 3:30 pm on Thursday, faced multiple rescheduling instances before finally taking off from the Delhi airport around 9:55 pm on June 1. 

Passengers, including elderly individuals and children, endured a lengthy wait due to technical glitches, a malfunctioning air conditioning system, and payload-related issues.

A Twitter user writes, “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.”

In response to the delays, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued a show cause notice to Air India, seeking an explanation for the extended delay.

The notice specifically mentioned two international flights: AI 183 from Delhi to San Francisco on May 30 and AI 179 from Mumbai to San Francisco on May 24.

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