Chaos erupted in Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru after an Air India Express flight bound for Kathmandu, Nepal, returned twice after weather disruptions. The passengers, who were reportedly stranded for over 18 hours, staged a protest near the immigration point at T2, alleging gross mismanagement.
Chaos unfolded at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport after passengers bound for Nepal protested against Air India Express, alleging severe mismanagement that disrupted their journey for two straight days.
— Vani Mehrotra (@vani_mehrotra) February 28, 2026
According to passengers, the flight departed Bengaluru for… pic.twitter.com/mvXzRsk8GU
Sources said that the flight had a schedules about 180 passengers. They raised slogans in the airport and refused to vacate the area.
37 of the passengers were from Karnataka and were on board for a 10-day Nepal tour.
The flight departed from the airport at the scheduled time at 10:30 am on Thursday, and was scheduled to land in Kathmandu at 1:25 pm.
However, it had to divert to Varanasi due to poor visibility due to weather conditions in Kathmandu.
Passengers said that there were inadequate arrangements during the stop.
One passenger who was a tour agent travelling with the group of tourists told Times of India that they were made to "wait till 4:25 pm and were given only biscuit packets".
The same aircraft took off again on Friday morning, it failed to land in Kathmandu once again. This time, the flight was diverted to Lucknow.
Passengers said that they had to remain inside the aircraft for several hours after landing in Lucknow.
“We were kept inside the plane for hours without proper information. No one clearly explained what was happening,” one passenger said during their protest on Friday.
After the prolonged waiting, frustrated passengers staged a protest inside the aircraft, forcing the airline to fly back to Bengaluru.
Several of them sat in protest near the immigration area of the airport over the airlines wasting two days of their time.
They said that they were inside the aircraft for more than 30 hours and accused the airline of poor coordination.
“Our entire Nepal trip has been ruined. We planned this well in advance and suffered financial losses,” another passenger said.
An Air India Express spokesperson said that they regretted the inconvenience caused to the passengers and said that the affected guests were provided hotel accommodation and the option of complimentary reschedule or a full refund cancellation.
An additional recovery flight is planned for Saturday.
