Representative image of an aircraft.
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A number of Indian flights, both domestic and international, have received hoax bomb threats in the past week, which has not only caused suffering to the thousands who were on these flights, but also to the airlines which lose crores of rupees when a single flight has to be landed or taken back to its destination due to these threats.
“The maximum landing weight of a B777 is 250 tonnes. A full flight like this weighs about 340-350 tonnes with passengers, baggage and cargo on take-off. Landing within two hours means dumping about 100 tones of fuel. At almost Rs 1 lakh per tonne, the fuel wastage cost alone works out to Rs 1 crore,” a senior pilot told The Times of India regarding the recent AI 119 flight that took off from Mumbai on Monday and was supposed to land at New York's JFK Airport.
However, soon after the bomb threat was received, the flight was diverted and made an emergency landing in Delhi.
Some other areas where the airlines needed to shell out more money include landing and parking charges at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport, the cost of putting up around 200 customers in different hotels in Delhi, compensating them for their time, and missing out on bringing back passengers from Delhi on a scheduled return flight.
Officials told the publication that the total cost of all these expenditures comes close to Rs 3 crore.
From Sunday to Thursday, Indian airlines received around 40 hoax bomb threats, the extra expense incurred for which is close to Rs 60 to Rs 80 crore, as per officials.
Another senior official of a big airline company told the publication that due to the extra time the crew members of these aircrafts are spending on one flight, they too have to be given time to rest. This includes hotel expenses. Moreover, passengers who miss their flights might also file cases against these companies, which will accrue more costs in the process.