Air India
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Air India
I loved this account of what appears to be a thoroughly jinxed service (roughly translated from Der Spiegel):
Unreal adventure in a jinxed plane
A delay of ten hours on the leg from Frankfurt to Delhi due to frenzied passengers, a clearly overtaxed crew and technical problems preventing you from getting to your destination. Hasnain Kazim was on board. An account of the second botched Air India flight within a week.
We all know that air travel can be stressful. But Air India passengers traveling from Frankfurt to Delhi have just found out that it can indeed get worse – much worse
Air India B747 “Sunderban” from LAX landed at Frankfurt Airport at 4.00 p.m. yesterday afternoon with a minor delay of 30 minutes. The passengers on board have been in the air for ten hours and, all going well, the flight should be on its next leg to Delhi within short.
The mood among passengers is quite buoyant, given the fact that Air India has managed to almost entirely make up what had been a 30 hour delay in its schedule the week before. Then, the same flight had been grounded for technical reasons, followed by an error by Frankfurt Airport that added another couple of hours – and finally the flight had to turn back over Hungarian air space when the crew found out that two suitcases had been loaded onto the plane without accompanying passengers. This extremely rare chain of mishaps resulted in what one would term the “mother of all delays” – unrepeatable. One would think.
On this flight, however, two drunken and ill-behaved passengers are on board – Indians with German passports. They board last and display some trouble in finding a straight path to their seats at the very back of the plane, where they proceed to terrorize other passengers and crew members. First, they inquire of two Italian ladies nearby whether they might have sex and fondle their breasts. The two females jump out of their seats screaming and ask to be seated elsewhere. Their request cannot be met as the flight is full.
Punjabi blood is thicker than alcohol
The crew call the police, who arrive in the person of a Superintendent of the German Federal Police. He warns the two men to behave themselves, but points out that he cannot remove them from the plane unless authorized to do so by the Captain.
Captain K. Mehra, never leaves his cockpit, but asks for an Air India official based in Frankfurt to come on board. This official concedes that the whole matter is not very serious. Some of the cabin crew wrongly point out to complaining passengers that the Captain is not authorized to kick out misbehaving elements and only an Air India manager may do so.
Another Punabi passenger, clearly concerned about his fellow countrymen, assures everyone that he will from now on control the two rowdies and put an end to their offending other passengers. After all, these are only two somewhat tired and emotional men. He utters these assurances despite not personally knowing the two. Obviously, Punjabi blood is thicker than alcohol.
Finally, the plane is on the taxiway and apparently ready to take off. But the pacifier has obviously promised far too much. He is unable to control the two drunkards, who are now trying to molest some flight attendants. Kamila Baptista, a young stewardess, breaks into tears. More and more passengers begin to complain aloud and demand that the miscreants be removed from the flight. One man gets up and warns that unless the Captain turns back this entire episode will have an unpleasant follow-up.
The plane returns back to the tarmac. Passengers seated up front, who have clearly not heard the commotion at the rear, are puzzled.
“You may not know it, but you have a serious problem”
Within ten minutes, the plane is entered by six police officers who immediately go for the two drunken Punjabis and try to remove them from their seats. One of them keeps on protesting by saying “No problem, no problem”.
Police officer: “Yes, you do have a problem. You just don’t know how big it is.” Finally, the two men are pulled from their seats and handcuffed. Applause from fellow passengers. One man says: “Oh dear, I’ll miss my train to Rajasthan.” Laughter. “How about some food?” asks some particularly wise guy.
With a delay of some four hours, the flight finally takes off for Delhi. The Captain comes over the PA system and apologizes for the late departure. “This incident has damaged the reputation of Air India as well as that of our country and that of Indian nationals,” he says, “but safety is our top priority and we thus had to remove two undesirable passengers before take off”. He goes on to explain that the entire episode has taken so long because in order to adhere to regulations, the two men’s baggage had to be offloaded, too. Some passengers are speculating about the size of the bill the two removed passengers might be presented with – an expensive couple of drinks, the thinking goes. But even the Punjabi who was initially keen to vouch for the two drunkards now agrees it would serve them right.
More booze, more turmoil
A few hours into the flight, arguments and fights are going on simultaneously in various sections of the cabin. One female FA says: “Some passengers learn nothing. They go on drinking like mad and make life hell for us.” She tries to find an explanation. “Usually, these things only happen on flights from the Gulf region, where alcohol is hard to find. The guys go and stock up in the Duty Free Shops and drink the stuff on board. But this should not happen on the LAX-FRA-DEL route. “ She concedes that refusing to serve them alcohol will have no effect, as they resort to drinking their duty free purchases. “We are not allowed to take it away from them,” she laments.
For the first time, the Captain appears in the Y class cabin, tries to calm down some of the more rowdy elements and – in an attempt to pacify things - shakes hands with some of the other passengers. He disappears back to his cockpit from where he has astounding news – just thirty minutes prior to landing at Delhi. “Due to fog and haze we are unable to land at Delhi and shall divert to Bombay.”
But what will happen thereafter is apparently not clear to anyone among the crew. The standard reply to all questions is simply that this particular aircraft is not equipped for low-visibility landings.
Bombay is about 1,000 km south of Delhi. “****,” says an elderly Indian businessman in a suit who probably does not resort to this kind of language very frequently. Steward Sasidharan is busy patrolling the cabin with a red folder marked “Inflight Service Report” and collecting complaint forms.
Passenger revolt in the tandoori oven
Two hours later, and the 16 year old “Sunderban” touches down at Bombay. Passengers are requested to remain on board. Turmoil ensues.
15 of the total of some 400 passengers are actually booked to go to Bombay, and would have taken a connecting flight from Delhi – if all had gone as planned. In this situation, they clearly want to get out and home. Administrative chaos sets in, as there appears to be no one who available who could give permission for the 15 to deplane. These passengers finally demand to see someone in charge, pcik up their hand baggage and leave the plane.
As was to be expected, one would say, their efforts to negotiate their entry into India at Bombay Airport come to nothing. But the gang of 15 now refuse to get on the plane again, resorting to screaming and shouting at the gate. Air India staff try to explain to them that it would be too much effort to remove all luggage from the hold in order to find their bags.
The Bombay passengers now write a letter of protest which includes their agreement to having their luggage sent back to them from Delhi.
Now all other passengers still on board begin to complain and protest about their situation. Some resort to ludicrous jokes in view of what is total chaos. The A/C system cannot cope, as there appears to be no ground unit connected. A few passengers pick up the idea of writing letters of protest, demanding “information” and an “immediate departure for Delhi”.
The crew has now been on duty for 13 hours and vanishes. Passengers begin to distribute drinking water, others start cleaning up rubbish.
"I wouldn’t mind a bomb”
Two hours after landing at Bombay, the crew turns up again and hands out dry cheese sandwiches they managed to organize somewhere. The Captain comes over the PA system again: “I do understand how difficult your situation is, but to be honest, the entire situation at Bombay Airport is chaotic.” No great help at this moment of time.
Then a sudden eruption of applause, as the Bombay-bouned passengers are allowed to disembark. One hour later (it is now 0620 on Friday morning in German), and two policemen come aboard to check on whether someone might have left any hand baggage behind. After all, it could contain a bomb. “I wouldn’t even mind a bomb,” complains a stressed young man. “Just get out of here.”
Finally, at 0720 German time, the flight departs for Delhi where – according to Air India speak – it will land “as scheduled” one hour and twenty minutes later. More applause. “Let’s hope we don’t find ourselves in Calcutta, Kanpur or Bangalore,” I hear someone say. A total delay of 10 hours. “Not much, all considered,” offers one passenger, “but horrific if you have to endure it yourself.” Not one voice of dissent is heard.
Once inside the terminal building at Delhi Airport, we are greeted by a power outage. Once the power comes back on, the baggage belt does not work properly, and our cases take two hours to appear. Hey, but what’s two hours?
Unreal adventure in a jinxed plane
A delay of ten hours on the leg from Frankfurt to Delhi due to frenzied passengers, a clearly overtaxed crew and technical problems preventing you from getting to your destination. Hasnain Kazim was on board. An account of the second botched Air India flight within a week.
We all know that air travel can be stressful. But Air India passengers traveling from Frankfurt to Delhi have just found out that it can indeed get worse – much worse
Air India B747 “Sunderban” from LAX landed at Frankfurt Airport at 4.00 p.m. yesterday afternoon with a minor delay of 30 minutes. The passengers on board have been in the air for ten hours and, all going well, the flight should be on its next leg to Delhi within short.
The mood among passengers is quite buoyant, given the fact that Air India has managed to almost entirely make up what had been a 30 hour delay in its schedule the week before. Then, the same flight had been grounded for technical reasons, followed by an error by Frankfurt Airport that added another couple of hours – and finally the flight had to turn back over Hungarian air space when the crew found out that two suitcases had been loaded onto the plane without accompanying passengers. This extremely rare chain of mishaps resulted in what one would term the “mother of all delays” – unrepeatable. One would think.
On this flight, however, two drunken and ill-behaved passengers are on board – Indians with German passports. They board last and display some trouble in finding a straight path to their seats at the very back of the plane, where they proceed to terrorize other passengers and crew members. First, they inquire of two Italian ladies nearby whether they might have sex and fondle their breasts. The two females jump out of their seats screaming and ask to be seated elsewhere. Their request cannot be met as the flight is full.
Punjabi blood is thicker than alcohol
The crew call the police, who arrive in the person of a Superintendent of the German Federal Police. He warns the two men to behave themselves, but points out that he cannot remove them from the plane unless authorized to do so by the Captain.
Captain K. Mehra, never leaves his cockpit, but asks for an Air India official based in Frankfurt to come on board. This official concedes that the whole matter is not very serious. Some of the cabin crew wrongly point out to complaining passengers that the Captain is not authorized to kick out misbehaving elements and only an Air India manager may do so.
Another Punabi passenger, clearly concerned about his fellow countrymen, assures everyone that he will from now on control the two rowdies and put an end to their offending other passengers. After all, these are only two somewhat tired and emotional men. He utters these assurances despite not personally knowing the two. Obviously, Punjabi blood is thicker than alcohol.
Finally, the plane is on the taxiway and apparently ready to take off. But the pacifier has obviously promised far too much. He is unable to control the two drunkards, who are now trying to molest some flight attendants. Kamila Baptista, a young stewardess, breaks into tears. More and more passengers begin to complain aloud and demand that the miscreants be removed from the flight. One man gets up and warns that unless the Captain turns back this entire episode will have an unpleasant follow-up.
The plane returns back to the tarmac. Passengers seated up front, who have clearly not heard the commotion at the rear, are puzzled.
“You may not know it, but you have a serious problem”
Within ten minutes, the plane is entered by six police officers who immediately go for the two drunken Punjabis and try to remove them from their seats. One of them keeps on protesting by saying “No problem, no problem”.
Police officer: “Yes, you do have a problem. You just don’t know how big it is.” Finally, the two men are pulled from their seats and handcuffed. Applause from fellow passengers. One man says: “Oh dear, I’ll miss my train to Rajasthan.” Laughter. “How about some food?” asks some particularly wise guy.
With a delay of some four hours, the flight finally takes off for Delhi. The Captain comes over the PA system and apologizes for the late departure. “This incident has damaged the reputation of Air India as well as that of our country and that of Indian nationals,” he says, “but safety is our top priority and we thus had to remove two undesirable passengers before take off”. He goes on to explain that the entire episode has taken so long because in order to adhere to regulations, the two men’s baggage had to be offloaded, too. Some passengers are speculating about the size of the bill the two removed passengers might be presented with – an expensive couple of drinks, the thinking goes. But even the Punjabi who was initially keen to vouch for the two drunkards now agrees it would serve them right.
More booze, more turmoil
A few hours into the flight, arguments and fights are going on simultaneously in various sections of the cabin. One female FA says: “Some passengers learn nothing. They go on drinking like mad and make life hell for us.” She tries to find an explanation. “Usually, these things only happen on flights from the Gulf region, where alcohol is hard to find. The guys go and stock up in the Duty Free Shops and drink the stuff on board. But this should not happen on the LAX-FRA-DEL route. “ She concedes that refusing to serve them alcohol will have no effect, as they resort to drinking their duty free purchases. “We are not allowed to take it away from them,” she laments.
For the first time, the Captain appears in the Y class cabin, tries to calm down some of the more rowdy elements and – in an attempt to pacify things - shakes hands with some of the other passengers. He disappears back to his cockpit from where he has astounding news – just thirty minutes prior to landing at Delhi. “Due to fog and haze we are unable to land at Delhi and shall divert to Bombay.”
But what will happen thereafter is apparently not clear to anyone among the crew. The standard reply to all questions is simply that this particular aircraft is not equipped for low-visibility landings.
Bombay is about 1,000 km south of Delhi. “****,” says an elderly Indian businessman in a suit who probably does not resort to this kind of language very frequently. Steward Sasidharan is busy patrolling the cabin with a red folder marked “Inflight Service Report” and collecting complaint forms.
Passenger revolt in the tandoori oven
Two hours later, and the 16 year old “Sunderban” touches down at Bombay. Passengers are requested to remain on board. Turmoil ensues.
15 of the total of some 400 passengers are actually booked to go to Bombay, and would have taken a connecting flight from Delhi – if all had gone as planned. In this situation, they clearly want to get out and home. Administrative chaos sets in, as there appears to be no one who available who could give permission for the 15 to deplane. These passengers finally demand to see someone in charge, pcik up their hand baggage and leave the plane.
As was to be expected, one would say, their efforts to negotiate their entry into India at Bombay Airport come to nothing. But the gang of 15 now refuse to get on the plane again, resorting to screaming and shouting at the gate. Air India staff try to explain to them that it would be too much effort to remove all luggage from the hold in order to find their bags.
The Bombay passengers now write a letter of protest which includes their agreement to having their luggage sent back to them from Delhi.
Now all other passengers still on board begin to complain and protest about their situation. Some resort to ludicrous jokes in view of what is total chaos. The A/C system cannot cope, as there appears to be no ground unit connected. A few passengers pick up the idea of writing letters of protest, demanding “information” and an “immediate departure for Delhi”.
The crew has now been on duty for 13 hours and vanishes. Passengers begin to distribute drinking water, others start cleaning up rubbish.
"I wouldn’t mind a bomb”
Two hours after landing at Bombay, the crew turns up again and hands out dry cheese sandwiches they managed to organize somewhere. The Captain comes over the PA system again: “I do understand how difficult your situation is, but to be honest, the entire situation at Bombay Airport is chaotic.” No great help at this moment of time.
Then a sudden eruption of applause, as the Bombay-bouned passengers are allowed to disembark. One hour later (it is now 0620 on Friday morning in German), and two policemen come aboard to check on whether someone might have left any hand baggage behind. After all, it could contain a bomb. “I wouldn’t even mind a bomb,” complains a stressed young man. “Just get out of here.”
Finally, at 0720 German time, the flight departs for Delhi where – according to Air India speak – it will land “as scheduled” one hour and twenty minutes later. More applause. “Let’s hope we don’t find ourselves in Calcutta, Kanpur or Bangalore,” I hear someone say. A total delay of 10 hours. “Not much, all considered,” offers one passenger, “but horrific if you have to endure it yourself.” Not one voice of dissent is heard.
Once inside the terminal building at Delhi Airport, we are greeted by a power outage. Once the power comes back on, the baggage belt does not work properly, and our cases take two hours to appear. Hey, but what’s two hours?
Last edited by Al Fakhem; 3rd Mar 2007 at 11:34.
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Yes, it's all par for the course; with Air India and Indian Airlines merging, I don't see things improving quickly.
Not to be pedantic either, but Air India is "AI"; Indian Airlines is "IC".
Not to be pedantic either, but Air India is "AI"; Indian Airlines is "IC".
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Air India Worldliners
Air India has released their Worldliner seatmap.
It has 8 F seats, 1-2-1, and 35 business class seats 7 abreast. Economy is 9 abreast, allegedly at 34 inch pitch.
Any additional interior details?
When do the Worldliners arrive?
Which routes would they fly?
It has 8 F seats, 1-2-1, and 35 business class seats 7 abreast. Economy is 9 abreast, allegedly at 34 inch pitch.
Any additional interior details?
When do the Worldliners arrive?
Which routes would they fly?
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Air India to get 12 a380s!
Airbus is in talks to sell A380 jets to state-run Air India
So far the European aircraft manufacturer has orders for just five of the A380 jets from one Indian carrier, Kingfisher Airlines
yeah!!!!!!!!!
So far the European aircraft manufacturer has orders for just five of the A380 jets from one Indian carrier, Kingfisher Airlines
yeah!!!!!!!!!
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well... both airports can handle them... but a380 suits Indian pax requirements.
besides there are new airports being made in bombay/bangalore
delhi is being expanded and a secondary airport is going to be made...
besides there are new airports being made in bombay/bangalore
delhi is being expanded and a secondary airport is going to be made...
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Air India crew, engineers on flash strike
Over 15,000 crew members and maintenance engineers of Air India went on a flash strike all over India today, hitting the carrier`s operations, according to airport sources.
AsianLite
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Air India
Several posts in the Birmingham & Dublin threads but a lot of rumours
and developments happening at present not just surrounding Europe.
This is mainly rumour taken from other sites but seem fairly decent.
New direct services rumoured
Delhi - Chicago 77L
Delhi - Toronto 77W
Delhi - San Francisco 77L from 2011 four weekly
Delhi - Melbourne 77L - announced but no schedule I believe
Mumbai - Newark direct
To be cancelled
Mumbai - New York the 77W will go BOM-DEL-JFK
Heathrow - Toronto
Heathrow - Amritsar - slots to be used for more LHR-DEL/BOM
Frankfurt - North American flights which has already been stated.
Amritsar - Delhi to be increased from 2-4 daily.
Parting shot from one source "there will be no European scissors hub"
Certainly a lot happening with Air India at present.
Some of the new flights apparently appear in GDS others don't.
Heathrow - Amritsar is still bookable this winter.
Pete
and developments happening at present not just surrounding Europe.
This is mainly rumour taken from other sites but seem fairly decent.
New direct services rumoured
Delhi - Chicago 77L
Delhi - Toronto 77W
Delhi - San Francisco 77L from 2011 four weekly
Delhi - Melbourne 77L - announced but no schedule I believe
Mumbai - Newark direct
To be cancelled
Mumbai - New York the 77W will go BOM-DEL-JFK
Heathrow - Toronto
Heathrow - Amritsar - slots to be used for more LHR-DEL/BOM
Frankfurt - North American flights which has already been stated.
Amritsar - Delhi to be increased from 2-4 daily.
Parting shot from one source "there will be no European scissors hub"
Certainly a lot happening with Air India at present.
Some of the new flights apparently appear in GDS others don't.
Heathrow - Amritsar is still bookable this winter.
Pete
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Air India - European Hub
There will be no European Hub now.
Flying to Europe, US: Some good news, some bad - Ahmedabad - City - The Times of India
Flying to Europe, US: Some good news, some bad - Ahmedabad - City - The Times of India
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Hub
I think it was pretty obvious with all the new direct flights from Delhi announced over the last month, just a surprise they left it so long for a press release.
Hopefully this will not prevent BHX-ATQ recommencing. Things have gone quiet since the CEO visit but still positive mutterings at BHX I believe.
Pete
Hopefully this will not prevent BHX-ATQ recommencing. Things have gone quiet since the CEO visit but still positive mutterings at BHX I believe.
Pete
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Does ayone know when air india is going to start flying lhr and direct again as heard this was restarting ageing to a lot people demanding these flights instead of connecting in boom or del
