Flight from Kuwait leaves behind half of luggage

Flight from Kuwait leaves behind half of luggage

Jan 9, 2025, 03.55 AM IST 

Chennai: Many Air India Express passengers from Kuwait were in for a shock when they landed in the city on Monday as the airline had left behind their luggage to maintain air haul. weight.

The flight with around 176 passengers landed in Chennai around 6.30am. Most of them could not find their check-in luggage on the conveyor belt.

Only when they confronted the airline's ground staff were they told that some of the luggage had been held back to maintain the flight's air haul weight. The staff assured the passengers that the remaining luggage would reach Chennai on Wednesday and Thursday and be delivered at their doorsteps.

"Due to payload restrictions, some checked-in baggage could not be uplifted on one of the flights operating on the Kuwait-Chennai sector on Monday. We regret the inconvenience caused to our guests. Arrangements have been made to deliver the affected baggage to the residences of the guests at the earliest, at the airline's expense,” an Air India Express spokesperson said.

A retired airline official, though, said it was a clear mistake on the part of the "An aircraft cannot always take the full load of passengers, and in aviation, it is called regulated take-off weight (RTOW). It is the duty of the airport manager to plan well ahead to keep the weight within the RTOW limits .Temperature, time of operation and distance to cover (sector) play a vital role in deciding RTOW the number of passengers and luggage an aircraft can handle. In this case, the airport manager should have restricted the passengers to 120 140,” he said was not allowed to separate passengers from their check-in luggage. "Also, making delivery arrangements will put an additional burden on airlines," he said.