Mangalore: Several passengers from the West Asian countries arriving at Mangalore International Airport on Friday complained that their luggage did not reach the city on time.

The sources in the airport said the delay was an annual phenomenon. Since, there are a large number of passengers due to linking holidays; Air India had to carry the luggage in a separate flight. However, some of the passengers from Dubai and Doha picked up an argument with the employees of Air India and airport staff on Friday night.

Another officials said that they had been facing the inconvenience since the past three days since the passenger load in the Mangalore-bound flights was over its capacity. Hence, the flights had no option but to leave behind some luggage to accommodate all its passengers, he said. He added that the airlines did not restrict its passengers from carrying more than one bag of luggage, due to which the passengers carried several bags at a time, resulting in the increase of overall baggage load over the capacity mark in such flights.

Nagesh Shetty, station manager, Air India, Mangalore said the delay was due to the rise in the number of passengers coming in during Bakrid and Dasara. Passengers were bringing more hand baggage and luggage. An aircraft could carry only the permissible limit of load including passengers and luggage. Shetty said Air India had made arragements to send late-arriving luggage to the homes of passengers.