Pune: Nearly 100 passengers were left stranded at Pune airport in the early hours of Tuesday after their Air India Express flight to Kochi was delayed by more than five hours.Flight IX-2739, scheduled to depart from Pune at 1.30am, eventually took off around 6am. Passengers alleged poor communication and misbehaviour by ground staff.TOI sent a detailed query to an Air India Express spokesperson via WhatsApp, seeking the reason for the delay and a response to the allegations against the ground staff. A response was awaited at the time of going to press.Abhinav Pathak, a Wakad resident who was travelling to Kochi with his elderly parents, said they reached the airport around 10.30pm. “A day earlier, we received a notification that the flight might be delayed. We received another notification on Tuesday saying the flight was on time. There was no information about the delay before we arrived at the airport,” he said.Pathak alleged that the situation worsened because of the conduct of the ground staff. “Passengers repeatedly asked about the reason for the delay, but the staff simply would not tell us anything. They appeared casual and were laughing while passengers were getting increasingly frustrated,” he said.Passengers were initially told that the flight would be delayed by an hour. The delay was subsequently extended to two hours and then three hours. Pathak said his parents were uncomfortable because of the low temperature inside the terminal and were given tea only after repeated requests.With no clarity on the departure time, passengers also sought refreshments. “Only after repeated requests were we given a sandwich and water,” he said.Tension eventually escalated, with an altercation breaking out between passengers and a ground staff member. Pathak said some passengers recorded the interaction. Ground staff objected to the passengers recording videos, citing that Pune airport is an Indian Air Force station. They also alerted the CISF, but passengers clarified that they were not filming the airside area.“We finally boarded the plane around 5.30am, and the flight departed around 6am. Instead of 3.30am, we reached Kochi around 7.30am,” he said.Several passengers cancelled their tickets because of the delay, Pathak said. Others continued their journey as last-minute airfares were exorbitant. Pathak also filed a complaint through the AirSewa portal.
