30 Hours Delay: Air India Flight to San Francisco Finally Takes Off

Air India AI183- More than 250 passengers will never forget these three words for the rest of their lives. 30 hours of flight delay, out of which 8 hours inside the aircraft cabin. That too without the air conditioning in this scorching summer. There is a likely chance that after this horrible ordeal, these passengers will never dare to fly Air India again. If you are in the business of running an airline, you should learn from Air India how not to run an airline.

If you are still unaware of this story, stay tuned because we will be covering this one from scratch.

Start of a Horrible Experience

Air India flight AI 183 was set to fly from Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL) to San Francisco International Airport (SFO). On May 30, the flight was expected to depart at 03:30 PM. The boarding was complete. After this, the flight was delayed because of operational reasons. The airline kept delaying the flight for more than six hours.

During this period, the passengers were sitting inside the aircraft cabin. Engines are the power source for the air conditioning system in an aircraft. As the aircraft was on the ground, the engines were not running and the air conditioning was not working. The passengers had to sit inside the aircraft for a long time without proper AC. Due to the immense heat, some passengers onboard even fainted.

After this, the crew onboard the aircraft crossed their Flight Duty Time, meaning there was a need for a separate pair of crew members. The airline eventually rescheduled the flight to 03:30 PM on Friday. It offered full refunds to passengers and provided them with hotel stays.

The Horrible Experience on Second Consecutive Day

The flight was now expected to depart Delhi Airport at 03:30 PM on Friday. But this flight was again rescheduled to 07:00 PM. All passengers boarded the aircraft. The Boeing 777 registered as VT-ALG pushed back and started taxiing towards the runway. Then again, it turned around and docked back at Terminal 3.

Passengers were told that the temperature outside was 39 degrees, which did not allow the aircraft to depart. The pilots informed that once the temperature was reduced to 37 degrees, the aircraft would depart.

Finally, AI183 which was expected to depart at 03:30 PM on Thursday departed at 09:50 PM on Friday after a whopping 30 hours of delay. The flight swapped its callsign from AIC183 to AIC183D. This “Delta” addition ensures that there is no confusion in the callsigns because there are two Air India flights flying from Delhi to SFO at the same time.

Do you know what is the terrible part of this story? This is not an isolated incident. This incident comes just days after a similar incident occurred with passengers traveling between Mumbai and SFO.

Previous Incident Involving Air India

On May 25, Air India Boeing 777 registered as VT-AEI was getting ready to operate flight AI179 from Mumbai to San Francisco. Similar to the above-stated ordeal, this flight was also delayed because of a technical issue with one of the engines. Because of this, passengers had to sit inside the aircraft for more than 6 hours. Due to poor air conditioning, a few older citizens even fainted.

Later on, the airline rescheduled the flight to the next day in the name of lapsing crew duties and night landing restrictions at SFO. Passengers were offered full refunds and accommodation.

You know many times people ask: Will Air India ever gain standards like Emirates? The answer lies in such incidents. Just imagine, if such a similar incident happened onboard Emirates at Dubai Airport, I can ensure that the airline would have prioritized customer safety and comfort.

I have personally been in such a situation with Emirates. In February 2024, I was traveling from Nairobi to Mumbai via Dubai. The aircraft, a Boeing 777 developed a technical glitch as a result of which the flight was delayed. However, after 40 minutes of boarding, the security agencies at DXB asked the airline staff to deboard the passengers. The delay lasted for four hours. We were provided refreshments by the airport staff. But in the case of Air India, it has broken the established protocols.

DGCA Issues Show-Cause Notice to Air India

This year, Air India has been fined a lot of times by the aviation regulator- the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The largest fine amounted to Rs 2.1 crore when the airline deployed a newly inducted B777 with limited oxygen supply over routing surpassing the Hindu Kush range.

In the above-described cases, DGCA has asked the airline why action should not be taken against it. The regulator said that in AI179 and AI183 delays, passengers were put to discomfort by the airline. This means a violation of several established CARs by the airline.

The regulator added that Air India is failing to maintain passenger compliance guidelines again and again. It has asked the airline to reply to this show cause notice within three days.

Conclusion: Air India Inadvertent Delays

Air India is failing to take care of its passengers onboard ultra-long-haul flights. In the past week, two incidents have occurred in which older citizens fainted inside the aircraft cabin as the flight was inadvertently delayed and eventually rescheduled. In one case, the flight was delayed even twice. DGCA has taken notice and asked the airline the reasons why action should not be taken against it.

What do you think about this service deterioration by Air India? Discuss in the comment section.