Air India’s flight from Delhi to Vancouver, originally scheduled for early Saturday (June 1) morning, faced a significant delay due to technical issues. The airline has rescheduled the flight, now expected to depart early Sunday (June 2) morning.
“AI185 scheduled to operate Delhi-Vancouver of 1 June was delayed because of technical issues and subsequently due to crew coming under the mandatory Flight Duty Time Limitations,” an Air India spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday. The spokesperson expressed regret for the inconvenience caused to passengers.
The exact number of affected passengers has not been disclosed. The airline provided hotel accommodations and offered options for cancellation with full refunds or complimentary rescheduling to another date.
Third instance in 9 days
This marks the third instance, in a few weeks time, of an Air India ultra long haul flight experiencing lengthy delays. The Delhi-San Francisco flight, initially set to depart at around 3:30 PM on Thursday, eventually took off at 9:55 PM on Friday, after a delay of over 30 hours.
A similar incident occurred on May 24 on a Mumbai-San Francisco flight, where passengers had to wait inside the aircraft for over five hours before it was rescheduled for the following day. The delay was initially caused by a technical glitch, followed by the deboarding of some passengers, and then further postponed when another passenger fell ill.
DGCA issues show-cause notice to Air India for repeated delays
On Friday, aviation regulator DGCA issued a show-cause notice to Air India for several flight delays and for failing to adequately care for passengers. The notice specifically cited the delays of two international flights: AI 183 from Delhi to San Francisco on May 30 and AI 179 from Mumbai to San Francisco on May 24.