NEW DELHI: An Air India flight from Phuket to Delhi on Friday got delayed by over 30 minutes en route. Adding to the agony of the flyers was the delay in arrival of the shuttle bus at the Indira Gandhi International Airport to transport them from the aircraft to the terminal. Air India and the airport blamed each other over the mismanagement.
Flight AI 2379 took off from Phuket International Airport at 9.27 am, 17 minutes behind schedule. It was scheduled to reach IGIA at 12.25 pm but reached only by 12.55 pm, according to flight tracking platform FlightStats.
An upset passenger took to X to highlight the delay in the flight. He posted, “Just what’s this chaos, Air India. AI 2379 arrives 40 minutes late in Delhi and now we are told there’re no buses available. Does anybody feel responsible for the time and opportunity loss for so many people? This is fully within your control and pure incompetence. Hopeless…”
He went on to state in another tweet that a majority of his past dozen arrivals at airports in the country were by bus (shuttle) and told Air India to get safe and stable step-ladders and decent buses and run them on time. “This is awful mismanagement,” he charged.
This led to a volley of criticism online directed at the airline. Entrepreneur Jatinder Wasan responded saying that both Air India and Delhi airport were taking passengers for granted. “Most flights are now bus gates. Yesterday AI 1809 was the same, Monday AI 1753 was the same. Ground handling is extremely poor.”
Neither the operator of the Delhi Airport nor Air India was willing to shoulder the blame over the issue. When asked about it, a source at Delhi airport said the shuttle bus was the responsibility of the airline and the airport had no role in it.
Air India replied to the passenger on X and claimed that the bus had arrived on time but the delay was because of the aerobridge. The post said, ”…the aerobridge assignment is managed by the airport operator and is unfortunately beyond airline control. While the coach had arrived on time on the tarmac, your inputs regarding coach boarding are duly noted and will be shared with the concerned team for necessary review."
Despite asking multiple people at Air india specifically about the delay in shuttle buses reported by passengers over the last week, no one responded.