‘Like a Heat Chamber’: Air India Express passengers left suffocating in hot cabin for 3 hours on Delhi-Pune  flight

Parag, a passenger, posted about his experience on X. “AC was not operational on the Delhi-Pune flight IX1230 on Tuesday. After having passengers board and making them sit in a stuffy cabin without AC for over an hour, they just announced the aircraft has a technical problem and is going back to the bay. No information on what the problem is, whether it can be fixed, or whether a different plane will be provided,” he shared.

Around 7 am, Parag posted again, saying the aircraft appeared to be preparing for departure – but minutes later, the AC had stopped working again as the plane waited for clearance. By 7.20 am, he said that Pune airport had not allotted a landing slot due to the delay.

Another passenger described the cabin as a ‘heat chamber,’ and said passengers were given little to no information about what was actually going wrong with the aircraft.

Saurabh Pathav, a flyer, said, “Flight no IX230, Delhi to Pune, was scheduled at 4.40 am. The flight completed boarding at 4.20 am, and for 1 hour, the flight didn’t get clearance. To make things worse, passengers were stranded inside with no air conditioning. The flight felt like a heat chamber, and I was later told that the flight had a technical issue.”

“Disappointed with the handling of flight IX-1230 (DEL to PNQ) on May 19. The flight was delayed from its early morning schedule due to technical issues, with very limited clarity shared with passengers. Passengers deserve proper updates and accountability,” said flyer Shahid Algur on X.

However, the flight later landed in Pune, and was scheduled for another service to Indore.

Air India Express, in an official statement, said that a technical fault was detected on the aircraft after passengers had already boarded in Delhi. The airline said its engineering team worked to resolve the issue and that supplementary ground-based air-conditioning was made available to passengers during the wait. “We regret the inconvenience,” the airline said.

However, passengers felt the airline’s response fell far short of what the situation demanded. “The plane was finally ready for departure after over three hours past the original departure time. What’s the cost such airlines must bear for inconveniencing hundreds of passengers?” Parag added.

Moreover, the same aircraft was subsequently scheduled to operate further routes, a Pune-to-Indore flight and an Indore-to-Delhi service. Both saw cascading delays as a result of the morning’s snag.

Santosh Gupta, owner of Shree Vinayak Holidays, told The Indian Express that his clients, a family of seven travelling to Jammu for the Vaishno Devi pilgrimage, were affected. “The Pune-Indore flight, scheduled around 8.10 am, departed only around 11.30 am. The Delhi flight also got delayed by nearly three hours. My clients were to fly to Delhi on the same aircraft, and upon reaching Pune airport, they were told their flight had been cancelled. It was only after an argument that they were finally told about the delay and allowed to board the same flight,” he said, pointing to what he called a serious miscommunication from the airline.