Over 100 Air India Express passengers stranded in Muscat hotels for the last three days

Muscat: The Air India pilots’ strike, which entered its third day on Thursday, has left over 100 passengers, majority of them low-wage workers, stranded at hotels in Muscat.

“We are trying our best to find a solution for the stranded passengers,” Mohit Sen, Air India Country Manager Oman, told Gulf News.

He said that since the pilots continued to abstain from duty the problem of stranded passengers was getting complicated. “The options are also limited or not available,” the soft-spoken manager said.

“Seats on the other airlines are also not available to accommodate these passengers,” he said, adding that a senior official from the airline would meet the passengers and brief them about the alternate arrangements being made.

Sen said that some of the passengers would be sent to Trivandrum via Mumbai by Thursday night flight.

Air India has accommodated over 100 passengers in two different hotels in Muscat after they reported for flight on Tuesday night.

Some of the 90 Kerala-bound passengers Gulf News met at the Al Falaj Hotel were literally panicking with one of them anxious to leave after three bypass surgeries in a year-long stay in Oman.

“I have had two bypass surgeries in India and one here in Oman,” Vinay Kumar, 37, told Gulf News today. He was returning home for good after one year employment at a men’s beauty salon in Al Khodh suburb of Muscat.

Vinay Kumar is spending some anxious moments as his wife and two children wait for his return in southern Indian state of Kerala.

The stranded passengers have travelled from different parts of Oman and about 24 are going after cancelling their visas. “My sponsor had come to cancel the visa but I don’t know if he will come again in time for me to take another flight,” feared a passenger, who wished anonymity.

R. Rajesh’s visa has expired and fines are mounting. “My sponsor was willing to pay 8.5 Omani riyals as fine for being one day late but now fines have accumulated to 40 riyals and may increase,” he said, fearing that now his sponsor may refuse to pay accumulated fines. “I hope Air India will help me resolve this fine issue as I don’t have so much money to pay,” he said.

Shivkumar S., who works for a catering company as a waiter, kept pacing up and down the hotel lobby. “My mother is in ICU and my employers with great difficulties gave 20-day off to go and see her and I am stranded here,” he said.

Housemaid Lorth Geeta has smilar predicament. Her 15-year-old son met with an accident in Nagercoil in southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. “He has to undergo brain surgery and I want to be by his bedside but I am stuck here,” she moaned.

The Indian Social Club’s Welfare Secretary P.M. Jabir has another problem. “An overstaying worker died in an accident but we cannot send his body back due to cancellation of Air Indian Express flights to Kerala,” he said. The Air India carries mortal remains of Indians back to India free of charge.

A seven-year-old girl had a different problem altogether. “I am leaving Sohar to join a school in India but for the last three days I am here in this hotel in the same cloths,” Sharanya Ravindran told Gulf News, complaining that her mother packed all her cloths in suitcase and she had to spend last three days in same pair of cloths.