Kerala airports see passengers protest against AI Express' last minute cancellations
Kochi/Kannur (PTI): Protests by irate passengers were witnessed at all airports in Kerala on Wednesday against the last minute cancellation of their Air India Express flights.
Passengers, mostly travelling to the Gulf nations, claimed that they were informed about the flight cancellations after they completed their security check and were waiting to board the flight.
While Air India Express has offered a full refund or complimentary rescheduling to another date, passengers are not happy with that.
Many of them claimed that they could lose their jobs if they do not reach their place of work today, while some others' work visas are about to expire.
One woman, who was to travel from Kannur to Sharjah with twin babies and her husband, said she has to rejoin work on May 9, but Air India Express was offering her a flight from Kochi only on May 10.
"What would be the point in me travelling on May 10? If I do not reach there before May 9, my boss will say not to come and I will lose my job," she told media.
Similar concerns were aired by many others who have to rejoin their places of work in the Gulf nations today or tomorrow and failure to do so could result in them losing their jobs.
The woman also said that she had been waiting at the airport since Tuesday night, when her flight was scheduled to leave for Sharjah, but no accommodation or other facilities were provided to them by the airline.
Another woman, who had booked tickets on Air India Express to meet her husband who is hospitalised in Muscat, said that she was told about the cancellation only when she reached the Kannur airport in the morning.
One man who had to travel urgently to Sharjah on Tuesday night from Kannur, did not wait to cancel the ticket and instead quickly bought a ticket on Indigo for Rs 37,000.
"There is a fight going on at the ticket counter. So, I quickly bought a ticket on Indigo for Rs 37,000," he said.
Similar scenes of irate passengers, some travelling with small children, were seen at Kochi, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram airports in the state.
Air India Express has cancelled "scores of flights" due to a shortage of cabin crew members as a section of them are reporting sick to protest against alleged mismanagement at the Tata Group-owned airline, according to sources.
Discontent has been brewing among a section of the cabin crew at the low-cost carrier for some time now, especially after the start of the process of merger of AIX Connect, formerly AirAsia India, with itself.
The sources on Wednesday said several cabin crew members started reporting sick since Monday evening and as there are not enough cabin crew members, "scores of flights" have been cancelled at various airports, including Kochi, Calicut and Kannur.
Later the airline, in a statement, said, "A section of our cabin crew has reported sick at the last minute, starting last night, resulting in flight delays and cancellations.
"While we are engaging with the crew to understand the reasons behind these occurrences, our teams are actively addressing this issue to minimise any inconvenience caused to our guests as a result."
The airline, in its statement, sincerely apologised to passengers for this unexpected disruption and emphasised that this situation does not reflect the standard of service it strives to provide.
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Gopi Thotakura becomes 1st Indian space tourist on Blue Origin's private astronaut launch
Washington, May 19: Gopi Thotakura, an entrepreneur and a pilot, on Sunday became the first Indian to venture into space as a tourist aboard Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin’s NS-25 mission.
Thotakura was selected as one of the six crew members for the NS-25 mission, making him the first Indian space tourist and the second Indian to venture into space after the Indian Army's Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma in 1984.
Blue Origin's seventh human flight, NS-25, lifted off from Launch Site One in West Texas on Sunday morning, the company announced on social media.
This mission was the seventh human flight for the New Shepard programme and the 25th in its history. To date, the programme has flown 31 humans above the Karman line, the proposed conventional boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space.
New Shepard is a fully reusable sub-orbital launch vehicle developed for space tourism by Blue Origin.
According to Blue Origin, "Gopi is a pilot and aviator who learned how to fly before he could drive."
He co-founded Preserve Life Corp, a global centre for holistic wellness and applied health located near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
In addition to flying jets commercially, he pilots bush, aerobatic, and seaplanes, as well as gliders and hot air balloons, and has served as an international medical jet pilot.
A lifelong traveller, his most recent adventure took him to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
Andhra Pradesh-born Thotakura is a graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Other crew members of the flight include Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Kenneth L. Hess, Carol Schaller, and former Air Force Captain Ed Dwight, who was selected by President John F Kennedy in 1961 as the nation's first Black astronaut candidate but was never granted the opportunity to fly to space.
The rocket booster landed safely a couple minutes prior to the capsule, CNN reported.
During the mission, the crew soared to more than three times the speed of sound. The rocket vaulted the capsule past the Kármán line, an area 100 kilometers above Earth’s surface that is widely recognized as the altitude at which outer space begins — but there’s a lot of gray area, the channel said.
At the peak of the flight, passengers experienced a few minutes of weightlessness and striking views of Earth through the cabin windows, it added.
During the flight, each astronaut carried a postcard to space on behalf of Blue Origin’s foundation, Club for the Future.
This programme gives students access to space on Blue Origin’s rockets, including an all-digital method to create and send postcards. The Club’s mission is to inspire and mobilise future generations to pursue careers in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) for the benefit of Earth.
From an environmental standpoint, nearly 99 per cent of New Shepard’s dry mass is reused, including the booster, capsule, engine, landing gear, and parachutes.
New Shepard’s engine is fuelled by highly efficient liquid oxygen and hydrogen. During the flight, the only byproduct is water vapour with no carbon emissions, the company earlier said.
Blue Origin released the NS-25 mission patch. A few of the symbols embedded include: The Gemini spacecraft represents Dwight’s aerospace training era. The hand lifting of the crew capsule is a nod to his extensive artwork.
The sunrise represents Angel and Schaller’s desire to experience the overview effect. The mountains symbolise Schaller, Thotakura, and Chiron’s passion for climbing and skiing.
Jeff Bezos’ space company had paused its suborbital tourism programme following a liftoff malfunction of the New Shepard rocket. In September 2022, an uncrewed flight of New Shepard ended in flames around a minute after liftoff.
