AI Express to Doha takes off after 18-hr delay

A Doha-bound Air India Express flight with 59 passengers onboard departed from here for its destination after a delay of almost 18 hours due to non-availability of flight crew, the Airlines said here.
The flight was scheduled to take off yesterday at 3.55 PM. It took off today at 10.44 AM, an Air India Express spokesperson told PTI from Kochi.
The spokesperson attributed the inordinate delay to a technical glitch as well as flight duty time limitation (FDTL) norm.
"The flight got delayed due to a snag and by the time our engineers fixed the problem, the flight and cabin crew had exhausted their flight duty hours under the DGCA's FDTL norm. So we had to arrange a new set of crew," he said.

"We had offered them dinner but they refused to get down from the aircraft. With no option, we served them snacks and also a heavy breakfast in morning," the spokesperson said.
There were 69 passengers on board the flight yesterday, but ten of them took flights of other airlines.