Two separate flights had to return back within a span of six hours.

On Saturday, June 11th, two AirAsia India flights had to return back to Delhi a few hours after taking off. Both flights were operating the Delhi – Srinagar route, but were operated using different aircraft. This left several passengers stranded at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL) with no way to reach their destination.

On the morning of June 11th, AirAsia India flight I5712 took off from DEL for a scheduled domestic service to Sheikh Ul Alam International Airport (SXR) in Srinagar. The flight was operated by an Airbus A320-200 aircraft registered as VT-APJ. The plane took off at around 11:55 AM local time and headed north towards its destination. After completing approximately two-thirds of the journey, the aircraft turned back to Delhi and landed in the Indian capital at around 1:40 PM local time.

The airline then made arrangements for another aircraft to complete the service and get all stranded passengers to their destinations. Another Airbus A320-200, registered as VT-RED, was made available by the airline. Flight I5712 again took to the skies at 4:45 PM but failed to complete the entire journey yet again. VT-RED flew north for about half an hour before entering a holding pattern over the Indian state of Punjab, and eventually returned back to DEL at around 5:45 PM local time.

An AirAsia India spokesperson told India Today,

"AirAsia India confirms that flight from Delhi to Srinagar had to return back to Delhi on account of a technical snag. The aircraft is being operated after rectification of the snag to recover continuity of operations to and from Srinagar. We regret the inconvenience and disruption to the travel plans of our guests and reaffirm our commitment to safety in all our operations."

In both cases, pilots made announcements to all passengers appraising them about a technical snag that forced them to turn back. However, both aircraft involved have taken several domestic trips since then. VT-APJ even completed a return trip to Srinagar from Delhi earlier this morning.

After two failed attempts at ferrying passengers to their destination, AirAsia India decided to offer them a full refund on their tickets. In addition, passengers were also provided the option to book another AirAsia India flight within the next 30 days.

As Simple Flying reported earlier, AirAsia India has an interline agreement in place with Air India for domestic operations. Meaning, in case of flight disruptions with either carrier, the other airline will accept its passengers. The interline agreement was meant for situations precisely like yesterday. For that reason, it is interesting to note that passengers from flight I5712 could not be accommodated on any AI flight.

Simple Flying did a little digging and found that Air India has two DEL-SXR nonstop flights on Saturdays, and both depart before the scheduled departure time of flight I5712. That could be a reason why the interline agreement could not come in handy yesterday.

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Journalist - An engineer in the making, Devansh has always had a knack for all things aviation. As an avid observer of the Indian aviation scene, he joins the Simple Flying team with nearly two years of experience as a writer.