'We pay premium fares': Supriya Sule slams Air India over flight delay

Mumbai: NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule slammed Air India on Saturday for "constant mismanagement" and termed the flight delays as a continuous trend affecting passengers despite paying premium fares.

Sule's furious response came after an Air India flight she booked was delayed by 1 hour and 19 minutes.

She highlighted that flights are delayed despite paying premium fares and demanded that Civil Aviation Minister Rammohan Naidu hold the airline accountable for frequent delays.

"Flights are endlessly delayed — this is unacceptable! We pay premium fares, yet flights are never on time. Professionals, children, and senior citizens — all affected by this constant mismanagement," the Baramati MP posted on X.

Sule said she was travelling on Air India flight AI0508 which was delayed by 1 hour and 19 minutes.

" — Part of a continuous trend of delays affecting passengers," she added.

Sule demanded stricter regulations be enforced to hold airlines like Air India accountable for repeated delays and ensure better service standards for passengers.

Speaking to reporters, Sule claimed flight trackers were faulty which gave misleading results.

"I was stranded at the Delhi airport on the flight, but the tracker showed that the flight was airborne. I would take up the issue of trackers with the Civil Aviation Minister," Sule added.

A response to a query sent to Air India on Sule's charges was awaited.

Notably, Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had last month slammed Tata Group-owned Air India for allotting him a "broken and sunk" seat. After Chouhan's outburst, his ministerial colleague K Rammohan Naidu instructed the airline to take "necessary action".

Air India apologised for the incident and ordered a "thorough probe" while the DGCA sought a report from the airline in the matter.

Chouhan had boarded the Delhi-bound Air India flight AI436 from Bhopal for Delhi to inaugurate a farmers' fair in Pusa.

"I was allotted seat number 8C. When I reached my seat and sat down, I found that it was broken and sunk. Sitting was uncomfortable," the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister had stated.

The Union Minister claimed several seats on the flight were in a similar condition.

Chouhan said he assumed Air India's service would have improved after being taken over by the Tata management, but he was mistaken.

He had said that charging passengers full fare and then making them sit on defective and uncomfortable seats was unethical. "Isn't this a form of deception towards passengers?"

After Chouhan shared his experience on X, Air India apologised for the "inconvenience" and ordered a "thorough" probe into the incident.