Thiruvananthapuram, June 7 (IANS) Erroneous crew rostering by national carrier Air India left more than 300 passengers stranded at the international airport here for more than 12 hours.

An Air India official told IANS that the two flights of Air India Express which were scheduled to depart Monday night at 7 p.m. to Dubai and 7.50 p.m. to Abu Dhabi, respectively, could not take off as the pilots had not done a minimum of 500 hours flying.

"During the monsoon season, it is mandatory that pilots should have completed a minimum of 500 hours. A faulty scheduling from those concerned caused this delay," said the official who did not wish to be identified.

"Both flights did take off Tuesday morning after 8 a.m. when experienced pilots were put in charge," he added.

But another official revealed that the pilots who were deputed to fly out the delayed flights were supposed to man flights to Muscat at 8.30 a.m. and Sharjah at 8.45 a.m., respectively, Tuesday morning. This led to more chaos.

"A huge crowd of agitated passengers to Muscat and Sharjah who came early morning are waiting now. The flight to Muscat is now scheduled to leave at 1 p.m and to Sharjah in the night," said the airline official who preferred anonymity.