An Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner was reportedly parked at Heathrow for almost to 12 hours as there were no pilots to fly it back to Delhi.
The cash-strapped airline had to accommodate around 200 passengers in hotels for the night on Tuesday.
The airline operated its Delhi-London flight as scheduled, which departed Delhi at 2.30am and landed in London around 6pm, local time.
The flight has a quick turnaround time and leaves for Delhi in around an hour.
“But, on Tuesday, the departure did not take place at the scheduled hour as the airline had not positioned any pilots in London to operate the return leg to Delhi,” an airline source told The Times of India.
“The pilots who flew the B787 Dreamliner from Delhi to London were given the mandatory 12-hour rest and then they operated the return flight to Delhi on Wednesday morning,” the source added.
An Air India spokesman said: “Air India had operated B777 aircraft on January 3, 4 and 5 to London in order to clear the holiday rush.
“Thereafter, from January 6, the aircraft was reverted to B787 and the crew was scheduled accordingly.
“However, due to fog in Delhi, one of the flights was diverted to Mumbai, which led to lot of changes in crew movement.
“After giving the pilots minimum applicable rest and keeping in view the night curfew in London, the flight was rescheduled to January 7 at 4am. Air India regrets inconvenience to passengers.”