Air-India passengers stranded at Riyadh airport for 26 hrs

Dubai, Aug 7 (UNI) About 320 Air-India passengers bound for Kozhikode were stranded at Riyadh airport in Saudi Arabia for nearly 26 hours before being shifted to city hotels.

An airline official said the cancellation of the flight followed ''some delay'' in Mumbai, but passengers told the local press that they were at the airport on Tuesday night for their flight at 0415 hrs local time but the announcement about the cancellation came only after the boarding passes were issued.

Passengers from far off places were hungry and thirsty as they waited at the King Khaled International Airport yesterday.

An airline official, who preferred not to be named, admitted that the national carrier had been ignoring the highly-profitable Saudi-Indian sector for quite some time.

Air-India currently operates nine weekly flights from Riyadh and the total number of flights from Saudi Arabia to India stands at 31.

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