MALAPPURAM: An Air India Express flight bound to Doha from Calicut International Airport on Wednesday returned a couple of hours after take-off due to some technical fault, airport officials said.

An airport official said that flight IX 375 with 188 persons, including the pilots and crew, took off from Calicut at around 9.07 am, but returned to the same airport two hours later at 11.12 am.

"There was some technical issue in the aircraft's cabin AC. It was not an emergency landing," the official said.

The passengers have been deboarded, he said and added that either the technical issue would be rectified or another aircraft would be arranged for the travellers to resume their journey.

An Air India Express spokesperson said that it was a "precautionary landing" in view of a technical error, and an alternative flight would be arranged for the passengers by 1.30 pm.

"Till then all arrangements, like food and water, have been made for the passengers at the airport," he said.