AirAsia X Shanghai-KL flight abruptly cancelled at 2:35am during boarding, passengers put on another flight to depart in 50 hours

A red-eye AirAsia X flight originally scheduled to depart Pudong International Airport in Shanghai, China, for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on May 11 at 2:35am was abruptly cancelled, with the passengers rescheduled on another flight that departed almost 50 hours later on May 13 at 5am.

The postponement left passengers, who were already waiting at the boarding gate, disgruntled and demanding compensation.

AirAsia X is a long-haul, low-cost airline and a subsidiary of the AirAsia Group. It specialises in medium-to-long-range flights from Kuala Lumpur.

Already at boarding gate

Details of the lengthy delay emerged on social media sites, such as X and Douyin.

A photo shared in an X post showed a message, presumably received by a passenger, stating that the May 11 flight, with flight code D7331, was rescheduled due to "operational reasons".

One Douyin user explained in a post that passengers were originally informed of an hour-long delay to the flight that was supposed to depart at 1:35am.

After the hour-long wait, passengers were abruptly informed of the new departure schedule, which was on May 13 at 5am, wrote the Douyin user.

"No notification of the delay. In the end, we couldn't fly. Couldn't even recover the costs incurred from our itinerary," another Douyin user wrote.

In one video, an airport ground staff could be heard offering various alternatives to passengers, including helping them to reschedule their flights.

Passengers could also be heard demanding compensation from the airport staff.

AirAsia X confirms cancellation

Responding to Mothership's queries, AirAsia X confirmed that the May 11 flight was cancelled due to "an unforeseen operational issue that required the aircraft to remain safely on the ground for further checks".

It also said an alternative plan had been activated as part of the service recovery, and all affected passengers are currently being accommodated on the earliest available AirAsia services to Kuala Lumpur.

Refreshments and available accommodation were provided to affected passengers, AirAsia X said, while its ground staff continue to assist them with booking the next available flights.

Benyamin Ismail, general manager of AirAsia X, said: "AirAsia X extends our sincere apologies to our guests, and can confirm that the delay was caused by an operational issue that resulted in the aircraft being grounded."

He also said the airline's teams are "working with urgency" to provide the earliest alternatives.

"We thank our guests for their patience and understanding as we connect them to their destinations as soon as possible," he added.