Air India could have handled the Delhi-San Francisco flight disruption in a better\u00a0way, a senior airline official said. <\/p>\n
Last Thursday the airline\u2019s auxiliary power unit flight was delayed by over 24 hours inviting passenger ire and a show cause notice from Directorate General of Civil Aviation. \u201cWe have given compensation to passengers for inconvenience and disruption. We offered accommodation and gave food. But clearly the way it was handled could have been better,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Narrating the sequence of events that led to delay, the official said that the auxiliary power unit (APU)\u00a0in San Francisco bound aircraft was not functional and hence air conditioning could not be switched on. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe aircraft was towed across from remote bay without a\u00a0functioning APU. It was then\u00a0connected to ground power but that wasn\u2019t powerful\u00a0enough to lower temperature of aircraft. Our staff made made a call to board people in aircraft.. May be it was a wrong call as aircraft was uncomfortably hot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Other challenges cropped up compounding the problem. A change in runway limited the aircraft payload and required fuelling. Some passengers also decided against travelling and their bags had to be offloaded and payloaded counted again. Eventually the aircraft took off after a delay of over 24 hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cClearly the way it was handled could have been better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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- \nAlso read: DGCA issues show cause notice to Air India for repeated passenger discomfort incidents<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n