Twenty-five Andaman-bound fliers were left stranded at the Dum Dum airport on Saturday after Air India failed to accommodate them on its 145-seater A320 flight. The passengers were told that due to a technical fault, the said flight could not take off and instead another flight, a 120-seater A319, would fly them to Andaman.

Furious, the passengers, most of who had hotel bookings in Andaman, staged a demonstration outside the Air India office demanding compensation. The situation was brought under control after ten of them were sent by a JetLite flight, while the other 15 were accommodated at a five-star hotel and assured of a morning flight to Andaman on Sunday.

A senior official with Air India said in light of the high number of bookings, they were expecting a bigger aircraft, but due to its unavailability, they had to make do with a smaller aircraft.

“There had been excess booking. We did not get the bigger aircraft due to a technical fault. There were no same sized aircrafts available. However, we sent 10 of the 25 passengers in the morning and will send the other 15 tomorrow by a 144-seater flight,” said the official.