Mumbai News: Air India Express Passengers Wait Over 80 Minutes For Baggage At CSMIA, Longer Than Flight Duration From Goa

Air India Express passengers on a late evening flight from Goa faced a severe delay in the arrival of baggage at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) causing resentment among the flyers. The passengers alleged that baggage delivery took more time than the flying time from Goa to Mumbai.

While baggage delivery at Mumbai’s CSMIA usually takes around 20 to 30 mins, passengers de-boarding from Air India Express flight IX-1241 at Terminal-2 on Monday evening were left waiting at the airport for more than 80 minutes due to delay in baggage delivery. The flight, which was supposed to depart at 8.10pm, actually departed at 8.53pm, thereby delaying the landing time by 35min.

As if the passengers were not already frustrated by the delayed flight, baggage delivery tested their patience furthermore. Some of the passengers who travelled on the flight, told The Free Press Journal that the arrival of baggage to the conveyor belt took around 1hr20min after landing. The passengers alleged that the waiting time was more than the flying time of 1hr7min from Goa to Mumbai.

Other Flights Beat Air India Express

According to the passengers, multiple other flights including IndiGo flights from Vadodara and Rajahmundry as well as Air India’s flights from Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram, which landed much later, delivered the baggage on the same conveyor belt before IX-1241 passengers received theirs.

One of the passengers, who is a resident of Dadar, told The Free Press Journal on condition of anonymity, “By the time, I should have reached home, I was still waiting for my luggage. It was a total disaster as there were senior citizens on the flight standing near the belt for more than an hour waiting for their luggage while children were equally irritated and were crying inconsolably.”

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The Free Press Journal contacted Air India Express but the airline did not provide any reason for the delayed baggage delivery.

Previous Incidents and Regulatory Warnings

However, this is not the first time that Air India Express has failed to deliver travelers’ baggage on time. In June, it caused chaos at Patna’s Jayprakash Narayan International Airport as two of its flights landed from Bengaluru and Chennai without carrying the travellers’ baggage. 

Notably, the bureau of civil aviation security had directed the airlines in February 2024 to ensure that the passengers’ baggage is delivered to them within 30 minutes. The directions were a part of the efforts taken to avoid congestion at airports and to provide better security to the travellers. However, multiple airlines have been disobeying the aviation security wing’s directives and continue to cause delays in delivery.