More than 250 passengers remain stranded at the Delhi Airport
for three days, AI, Delhi-LA flight

New Delhi, Sep. 04, 2006
Ram Parkaash Murli

On Sep. 02, AI-137 was delayed due to the malfunctioning of the weather radar and Air India tried to locate this part locally but could not obtain one which satisfied the requirements. On Sunday a replacement was brought by Air India officials from Dubai but it was the wrong model.

All the aircraft in Air India's fleet were fully deployed and no alternate aircraft could be made available till now because of peak season.

It is expected that Air India aircraft would leave for LA on Monday night with more than 275 passengers. It is also estimated that 80% of the passengers are NRIs (non-resident- Indians) on this light. Most of the NRIs have to attend their jobs after the long weekend of Labor day holiday.

• Few Months back, the same aircraft, whose tyre burst into flames while landing at LA a few months back.
• Due to shortage of aircraft, Air India has announced the suspension of four flights every week on the Mumbai-Frankfurt-LA route from October
• Two Air India flights from Delhi to Toronto were cancelled last week because of engine failure. Both aircraft were Boeing-777s that were leased.

It is also learnt that if Air India don't have enough planes, it will reduce flights on certain sectors. Supply of new planes are very tight and have to wait till get new planes.

To solve these problems, the Civil Aviation Ministry ordered 50 Boeings aircraft and expected by March, 2007