Mangaluru: The passengers flying to Damman from Mangaluru by the Air India Express flight on Monday, March 28, remained stranded in Mangaluru International Airport for over eight hours.

The sources said that the air carrier had informed all the passengers via mail on Saturday that the flight which was scheduled to take off at 5.35 pm on Monday would be delayed by one hour. Hence all the passengers were at the Airport by 6.35 pm.

“Once the check-in was done and the boarding passes were issued, they told us that the flight was delayed till 8 pm. We remained calm,” said a lady passenger speaking to newskarnataka.com.

Another passenger said that he came to know that the staff were waiting for some parts of the aircraft to arrive from Mumbai.

However, at about 8 pm, to the dismay of the passengers, another announcement was made that the flight was delayed by another four hours.

After a very long wait, the flight reportedly took off at 2 am on Tuesday.

However, it is said that about four passengers who were fed up of waiting, cancelled their tickets and returned home.

“They call themselves low-budget carrier, but they charge Rs 26,000 just for one way, which is on par with any premium flight,” said a passenger on conditions of anonymity who adds that since there are no other flights which go directly to Dammam from Mangaluru, people are forced to take this flight much against their wish.

“We were stranded at the airport for so many hours, and this carrier did not offer any help. If it was any other airline, it would have arranged room and food,” said an agitated passenger, who missed his commitment back home in Damman due to negligence of AIE.

He recalls that it is the same airline that has crashed in Mangaluru couple of years ago!

With vacation period just getting over, lot of families were seen at the airport to see off their loved ones. The number of passengers were also on the higher side.