AI says Cairo flight made zero profit

MUMBAI: About 220 passengers aboard the second Air India flight from Cairo landed in Mumbai at 5.40 am on Tuesday. While they were relieved at having escaped the chaos of the Egyptian capital, which is witnessing massive protests against the 30-year rule of president Hosni Mubarak, they complained of paying through the nose to book their tickets to safety. They were also resentful of the Indian embassy, which, they said, did not help in accordance with what the situation demanded.

Responding to the allegations, Air India said it was merely following orders from the ministry of external affairs to operate a no-profit flight. It said the tickets were priced high because the cost of operating the special flight was enormous.

''The airlines charged us $1,000 (about Rs 46,000; almost double the usual one-way fare) for each seat. There were 27 of us. How did they expect us to generate $27,000 when the banks are shut in Cairo?'' said Shamoon Mirza (32), who took the flight with his Sun Group colleagues.

Rekha Koparkar (66), who left Pune for Egypt on January 19 with a group of 22 senior citizens, had her return flight scheduled for January 29, which was cancelled. ''What irritated us most was that despite paying Rs 93,000 in advance for our 10-day trip, we were asked to pay an additional sum for the journey back to Mumbai,'' she said. Two in the group refused to pay extra for the flight seats and stayed back at Cairo airport.

''The airport was a mess and there was no place to move. On Sunday morning, we had to rush from one counter to another for something as trivial as getting a cup of coffee,'' Koparkar said. A person in another group, in transit at Cairo, said the 21 of them suffered two days in hunger and cold amid uncertainty. Yet, only 14 could take the Air India flight as the rest had run out of cash. Transit passengers were last on the airlines (and the embassy's) priority list, on top of which were those on business trips, followed by tourists.