Air India forced to cancel nine flights in two days

Cancellations come amid safety checks, glitches

- SWARAJ BAGGONKAR

AIR INDIA CANCELLED eight international flights on Tuesday, taking the total such cancellations—due to mid-air technical glitches or non-availability of aircraft—in the past 48 hours to nine.

The airline has been mandated to conduct additional checks on all its 787-8 Dreamliners by the regulator after the plane crash on June 12, which killed 241 of 242 on board.

While a Delhi to Paris flight was cancelled after the mandatory pre-flight checks identified an issue, an Ahmedabad to London (Gatwick) flight had to be cancelled as an aircraft was not made available in time. Return flights to India that were to be serviced by these flights also had to be cancelled subsequently.