india

Updated: Jun 01, 2016 09:10 IST

About 20 flight attendants, who operated an Air India flight each to the US from Mumbai and Delhi on May 29, were forced to wait for 90 minutes to get their hotel room keys as the national carrier had allegedly failed to make payments for the crew’s stay.

The two flights – AI 191 Mumbai-Newark and AI 101 Delhi-New York are among the longest international operations on the AI schedule with a flying time of almost 16 hours across different time zones. But according to the note sent to the airline management by the AI 191 crew from the hotel lobby, the hotel staff refused to provide them rooms.

“We reached the hotel at 8:45 local time. We were told by the reception staff that the rooms would not be ready and it would take between 1 and 2 hours to get them ready,” read the note. It added, “We are waiting here for more than an hour after operating a full ultra-long haul flight. On behalf of the crew, may I request you to ensure that the crew does not undergo this again?”

Worse, calls made to the airline local officers in New Jersey and New York went unanswered. “It is inhuman to keep the crew of a long-distance flight waiting post duty. If you add up the duty time, including the time spent in preparing the flight on ground, these cabin personnel were on duty for 20 hours,” said an airline official.

The AI spokesperson did not respond to HT’s calls and SMS.