Air India Express is facing a double whammy of negative publicity, with repeated incidents of operational and customer service failures. On Monday morning, Air India Express flight IX-195, scheduled to depart from Jaipur to Dubai at 6:00 am, was grounded due to a technical fault detected while taxiing.
Despite the engineering team working for over four hours, the problem remained unresolved, forcing the airline to disembark all passengers. As of yet, there has been no official communication regarding alternative flights or a revised departure schedule, leaving passengers stranded and frustrated at the airport.
This incident follows another highly negatively publicised incident involving an Air India IX-196 flight from Dubai to Jaipur (IX196). This flight experienced a five-hour delay, and passengers took to social media to voice their outrage over a malfunctioning air conditioning system.
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A viral video, shared by content creator Aarzoo Sethi, depicted a distressing scene of passengers drenched in sweat and frantically fanning themselves with safety instruction cards while aboard the grounded plane. Sethi’s video highlighted the lack of communication and assistance from the flight crew, emphasising the passengers’ distress and fear, especially in light of the recent Ahmedabad air tragedy. The passengers’ desperate attempts to contact the crew using the call bells further highlighted the inadequate response. In her caption, Sethi recounted her terrifying experience.
“We were stranded inside an @airindiax flight for 5+ hours, Flight number Ix196 with no AC, no communication, and zero assistance from the crew. All our co-passengers were distressed, sweating in the heat, with no clarity on what was happening. After the Ahmedabad flight incident, this felt even more terrifying. How can the same issues be repeated without accountability?” Sethi had written in the caption.
Air India Express subsequently issued a statement attempting to downplay the incident, claiming the air conditioning was functional but the cooling effect was diminished while the plane remained on the ground with its doors open. However, the statement failed to address the wider complaints about a lack of communication and support from the crew during the lengthy delay.
However, the claims of the non-function of the AC were refuted by the airlines days after the incident, claiming that the air conditioning was working normally, but the cooling effect does not feel optimal when the aircraft remains on the ground.
“The air conditioning system was functioning normally; however, when an aircraft remains on the ground with its doors open for an extended period, especially in hot weather conditions like those in Dubai, the cooling effect may not feel optimal until after take-off.” the airline said in a statements days after the incident.
