After Air India passengers faced a harrowing 30-hour delay on the Delhi-San Francisco flight AI 183 from Delhi on May 30 and AI 179 from Mumbai to San Francisco on May 24, the airline has now issued renewed SOPs to its cabin crew on AC temperatures before allowing passengers to board the aircraft. Firstly, the cabin crew will ensure that the aircraft is cooled down to 22 degrees Celsius before allowing passengers on-board.
A technical fault with the air conditioning system turned into an over 30-hour ordeal which ended on Friday (May 31) evening as the flight was rescheduled multiple times and even returned to the Delhi Airport within five minutes after take-off.
The Delhi-San Francisco flight was originally scheduled to take off at around 15:30 hours on Thursday, but faced inordinate delays due to various factors, including a technical glitch, non-functional air-conditioning system and payload issues.
In the renewed seven-point SOPs, Air India said that as the weather is hot during summer months, it results in increased cabin temperatures. To ensure that the cabin temperature is maintained at comfortable levels, cabin crew are required to carry out the following:
1. SCC to ensure cabin temperature status is checked immediately after boarding the aircraft.
2. Ensure that the cabin temperature is set to 22 degrees Celsius.
3. Boarding clearance is to be given when the cabin temperature in all zones is 25 degrees Celsius or below.
4. In case the temperature is not as desired, PIC (Pilot in command) and Engineering personnel to be notified. In such cases boarding clearance will be issued at PIC discretion.
5. Any delay arising from the above will be under “Miscellaneous”.
6. To maintain a comfortable cabin temperature, crew must be mindful of ensuring that service doors are not left open if the catering is not in progress.
7. As part of cabin preparation prior to boarding, the crew must open all the air vents.
