Passengers Protest At Kannur Airport Over AI Express Flight Delay

Passengers protested and created a scene at the airport here on Monday morning following the rescheduling of an Air India Express flight from Kannur to Thiruvananthapuram, airline sources said.

Visuals aired on TV channels showed irate passengers shouting at airline personnel at the airport accusing them of not giving advance notification about the flight delay.

Airline sources said that a flight scheduled to arrive in the morning from Muscat got delayed as it was grounded there due to some technical reasons.

The same flight was scheduled to depart to Thiruvananthapuram from here, they said.

"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 flight to Thiruvananthapuram was scheduled to take off at around 7 am but was delayed by several hours and will depart around 1 pm, the official said.

The passengers were offered a refund or a rescheduling of their flight, he added.

The official also claimed that no Air India Express flight to Dubai from Kannur was cancelled as a result of these developments.

However, airport sources claimed in the morning that an AI Express flight to Dubai was cancelled due to the grounding of the flight from Muscat and some passengers protested against that as well.