MUMBAI (AFP) - Indian budget airline IndiGo was forced to divert an international flight on Thursday (July 28) after an unruly passenger sat on the plane's food cart before attacking another traveller, it said.

The morning flight from Dubai to Calicut, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, was diverted to Mumbai where the passenger was offloaded and handed over to the police, IndiGo said in a statement.

"A little before landing, a passenger... started misbehaving with the crew. He jumped on the forward cart (which is used for food and onboard merchandise) and sat on it," read the e-mailed statement. "This passenger after stepping down from the cart, suddenly got violent and started physically abusing the other co-passenger."

The flight later landed in Calicut, also known as Kozhikode, around two hours behind schedule.

IndiGo, famed for its no-frills approach, commands almost 40 per cent of India's aviation market, the biggest share of any airline. It is the country's only consistently profitable airline.

In May, it grounded two pilots for attempting to land their plane on a road which they mistook for a runway in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan.