KARACHI, June 21: A several-hour long delay of a flight of a private carrier on Tuesday caused hardship to around 100 passengers, compelling them to protest at the airline’s counter at the airport. The passengers demanded compensation from the airline staff of Aero Asia, which cited technical faults as the cause of delay.

A passenger, Waseem Farooqi, told Dawn by telephone that initially the carrier’s flight No 108 was scheduled for Islamabad, but it did not leave.

Then they changed it to flight no 104, which according to the carrier’s management was to leave at 8pm, but that did not materialize either.

The Senior Vice-President of the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Zubair Ahmed, said a passenger had to attend a funeral, but the flight delay compounded his misery.

He added that the airline staff later said that the flight would leave at 11pm, but it did not happen and the passengers remained stranded at the airport till midnight.

Another passenger, Shahid Ali Khan, said all passengers had returned their boarding cards in protest. An airline official identifying himself as Mr Jamal told Dawn that it was a technical problem that had caused the delay.