Air India's Loo Woes: Who To Blame?

DECODE THE NEWS

Air India’s Clogged Toilets: Passengers May Not Be To Blame Entirely 

India’s flag carrier Air India made headlines last week for all the wrong reasons, yet again. This time it was clogged toilets on the plane that forced Air India Flight 126, en route from Chicago to Delhi, to return to Chicago O'Hare International Airport after its toilets were found to be clogged mid-flight. 

Eight out of the 12 lavatories on the flight had reportedly been impacted and the decision to return to Chicago was taken since potential diversion points in Europe were under night-time operational restrictions.

Air India said that its teams found “polythene bags, rags and clothes” had been flushed down the toilets. “This led the lavatories to become unserviceable,” Air India said in a statement after the incident. 

Social media was flooded with images and videos of an aircraft maintenance engineer cleaning plumbing pipes, with soiled clothes reportedly discovered in the system.

“First of all, this whole thing is absurd. The pictures circulating — blankets and plastic packets clogging the toilets — that’s pure nonsense. Those are old photos being pushed by an aviation expert, not evidence of what happened,” Mark Martin, founder and CEO of aviation consultancy Martin Consulting, told The Core.

Aircraft have to undergo deep cleaning before every takeoff, but each airline follows its maintenance schedule. These schedules are determined by the operator and outlined in a document called the maintenance planning document, which aircraft manufacturers provide as a guideline for routine servicing.

“An operator can choose to make its own maintenance cycle as per cost and time, but within the time frame mentioned by manufacturers,” an aircraft maintenance engineer with a middle-eastern airline told The Core on condition of anonymity. 

While the airline in its statement urged “passengers to use lavatories only for the purposes that they are meant for”, aviation experts weren’t quite convinced.

$14 billion 

This is the trade deficit recorded for India in February 2025, moderating to $14 billion as both exports and imports contracted, according to the commerce ministry data reported by Business Standard. Merchandise exports shrank 10.9% to $36.91 billion, while imports dipped 16.3% to $50.96 billion. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) had earlier warned that potential US protectionist policies and global geopolitical tensions could hurt trade in 2025. Meanwhile, the World Trade Organization (WTO) also revised its global trade growth forecast downward to 3% for 2025, citing persistent uncertainties despite improving global economic conditions.

—🛫 Aviation Beef! The operators of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport have sued the Delhi government in the Delhi High Court for allowing commercial flights from the Hindon airbase in Ghaziabad, UP. Reports suggest that the argument by Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), has called this a breach of aviation rules, citing that they do not allow a new airport to operate within 150 km of an existing one unless there is clear passenger demand. Hindon is 30 km away from IGI. Will the same logic apply to the upcoming Jewar Airport in UP? 

—🏠 Rents Win! The ‘rent or buy’ debate keeps evolving with India’s housing market. New ANAROCK data shows that in top cities, property prices (capital values) surged by 128% from 2021 to 2024, while rents rose by 66%. Capital appreciation means how much a property’s price increases over time. In cities like Noida, Mumbai, and Hyderabad, property prices rose faster than rents, making buying a home more attractive. However, in Pune, Kolkata, and Chennai, rents grew more than property prices, favouring rental investments. Experts say buyers and investors must choose wisely based on location trends.

—🫰 Inflation woes continue. India’s wholesale price index (WPI) inflation rose to 2.38% in February 2025, up from 2.31% in January, driven by higher fuel, power, and manufacturing costs, according to data released by the Commerce Ministry on Monday. The fuel and power index surged 2.12%, mainly due to a 4.28% rise in electricity prices and a 1.87% increase in mineral oil costs. Meanwhile, the WPI Food Index softened to 5.94% from a high of 7.47% in January which somewhat eased overall price pressure. 

—🥃 This Whiskey Tastes Recessionary! Americans are buying mini liquor bottles and single cigarettes, which could be signs of an impending recession, according to The Economic Times. The above items are actually more expensive per unit than their bulk counterparts, but the fact that people are buying more of the former means they’re prioritising immediate affordability over long-term savings. US president Donald Trump’s tariffs and seemingly unpredictable economic policies may be to blame; a recent poll of 220 CEOs by Chief Executive magazine found the lowest confidence in business conditions since 2012. Economists are divided on whether a recession is really on the cards, but all the signs point to a rocky economy. 

👥 THE TEAM

✍️ Zinal Dedhia, Salman SH | ✂️ Rohini Chatterji | 🎧 Joshua Thomas