BENGALURU: Major delays in SpiceJet flights from Kempegowda International Airport to New Delhi, Patna and Ahmedabad on Friday and Saturday have ruined the travel schedule of flyers. The sudden diversion of a Delhi-bound flight from Bengaluru to Nagpur, where passengers were stranded overnight for eight hours, half the time on the aircraft, left many fuming. Some said they felt ‘hijacked’ or ‘held hostage’ by the airline. SpiceJet, however, has ruled out any emergencies and attributed the delays to technical or operational reasons.
The 152 passengers of flight SG 8720 faced the worst. The flight, which was supposed to depart from KIA at 10 pm on Friday and reach New Delhi at 12.30 am on Saturday, departed at 11.30 pm and reached at 2 pm, 1.5 hours late after a massive delay at Nagpur.
Siddharth Jha, a passenger on board, told The New Indian Express, “We were stuck in Nagpur at 1.30 am and were in the aircraft till 5 am, without being allowed to deboard. After that, we were taken to the terminal and were there till 6 am. There was no news of what was happening.” Flight SG 7618 to Patna, which was to leave at 2.30 pm on Friday, left only after 9.30 pm with angry passengers lashing out at the airline staff, said a source.
The delays continued on Saturday. Gaurav Jha, a passenger, tweeted that flight to Delhi, was delayed by four hours. Parshita Panjali, a doctor, waiting for a flight to Ahmedabad from KIA tweeted for help: “Spicejet, again my flight is delayed 6.5 hours from banglore to ahmedabad (sg927), its hilarious..” [sic]
Another flight, from Delhi to Bengaluru, departed three hours late late. Tarunendra Pratap Singh, a management consultant at Accenture, who had to reach Bengaluru on Saturday, paid more than double to book a ticket on an IndiGo flight. “I spent Rs 10,500 for a ticket from Delhi while I got a refund of Rs 5,000 for my SpiceJet ticket. I finally landed at KIA at 9.38 pm instead of 2.30 pm,” he said.
Spicejet in a statement said: “Flight SG 8720 from Bengaluru to Delhi was diverted to Nagpur due to a technical issue. Passengers were served refreshments in Nagpur. An alternate aircraft was sent to Nagpur and passengers have now boarded the flight to Delhi. It is clarified that the aircraft made a normal landing in Nagpur and not an emergency landing.” On Friday’s delayed flight to Patna, it attributed the delay to ‘operational reasons.’