In a heart wrenching incident, a woman could not see her husband, who was admitted to an ICU in Oman, one last time due to the alleged cancellation of her Air India Express flight to the Gulf country last week, her family alleged. The woman, identified as Amrita, had booked tickets for May 8 to see her husband in Muscat, however, upon arriving at the airport in Thiruvananthapuram, she was told that the flight was cancelled.
Her protest at the airport earned her a ticket for the next day on another Air India Express flight, but unfortunately, that too was allegedly cancelled and she had to abandon her travel plans altogether. The news of her husband’s death reached her from Oman on Monday. He was hospitalised after a massive heart attack.
"It was so unfair that she could not see him for one last time. We begged the airline to accommodate us on some other flight so that we could see him for one last time. But they did not do anything," Amrita's mother told a TV channel.
She said that Amrita’s husband had said that he wanted to see his wife and kids, which is why they booked tickets to visit Oman and see him.
What did Amrita say?
Speaking to reporters, Amrita said that after the second flight was also cancelled, the airline told her nothing could be done.
"They said their flights for the next four days were full and they cannot do anything," she said. She said that she spoke to him over the phone. “Told him I will try to reach there if I can,” she added.
There was no immediate comment from the airline.
Air India Express flight cancellations
Air India Express had cancelled "scores of flights" last week due to a shortage of cabin crew members as a section of them reported sick to protest against alleged mismanagement at the Tata Group-owned airline.
Discontent has been brewing among a section of the cabin crew at the low-cost carrier for some time now, especially after the start of the process of merger of AIX Connect, formerly AirAsia India, with itself. From May 8 to May 10, Air India Express had to cancel over 260 flights due to cabin crew shortage, an airline source had said.
(With PTI inputs)
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