Chaos at Bengaluru airport as Kathmandu-bound Air India Express flight passengers stranded for 30 hours

Chaos ensued at the Bengaluru Airport as passengers on an Air India Express flight to Nepal faced an 30-hour wait due to severe weather conditions in Kathmandu.

Chaos broke out at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru on Friday after passengers headed to Nepal were left waiting for more than 18 hours after their Air India Express flight was diverted twice because of bad weather in Kathmandu.

Passengers protested the delay and voiced their frustrations over inadequate arrangements by the airline. (Reuters)

Frustrated travellers gathered near the immigration area and held a protest, shouting slogans against the airline and refusing to move. Around 40 passengers were Kannada-speaking, most of them part of a group tour to Nepal, news agency PTI reported.

The flight had taken off from Bengaluru at around 10:30 am on Thursday and was expected to reach Kathmandu by 1:25 pm. However, poor visibility forced the aircraft to divert first to Varanasi. When conditions did not improve, the flight was diverted again, this time to Lucknow, the report stated.

Passengers complained that arrangements during the delay were inadequate. They were made to wait inside the aircraft for a total of more than 30 hours, said a passenger, while another claimed they suffered financial losses due to the delays.

An Air India Express spokesperson confirmed that the diversions were caused by adverse weather conditions in Kathmandu and expressed regret for the inconvenience caused. The airline said affected passengers were provided hotel accommodation and offered either free rescheduling or full refunds. A special recovery flight has been scheduled for Saturday to clear the backlog, the spokesperson added.

"Due to adverse weather in Kathmandu, our Bengaluru-Kathmandu flights on 26 and 27 February were diverted. An additional flight operated today to recover guests from yesterday’s disrupted service was also diverted for the same reason... An additional recovery flight is planned tomorrow to accommodate these guests," the spokesperson said, as quoted by news agency ANI.

(With inputs from PTI, ANI)