An Air India Express (AIE) flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Sharjah with 170 passengers on board had to return to the airport here following a snag in an avionics gadget.

The IX 535 flight that took off from here at 8.15 a.m. retuned to the airport at 11.10 a.m. Airport sources here said that the commander informed the Air Traffic Control of the snag and his decision to return to Thiruvananthapuram. The flight landed after dumping the ATF.

The airline managed to arrange another aircraft to operate the service and the flight left for Sharjah at 1.45 p.m., sources said.

The AIE services from here were affected on Thursday on account of the strike by a section of Air India (AI) pilots. According to an AI spokesman, IX 549 Thiruvananthapuram-Muscat flight, scheduled to depart at 9.25 a.m., and IX 481 Thiruvananthapuram-Kochi-Dammam flight, scheduled to leave at 2.50 p.m., had to be cancelled.

AI 929

The airline announced that the AI 929 Thiruvananthapuram-Kochi-Riyadh service on Wednesdays and Fridays would operate only from Kochi till the strike was over. The airline asked the passengers who had booked from Thiruvananthapuram to board the flight from Kochi.