Pune: More than 100 flyers, including senior citizens, who were travelling to Dubai on a SpiceJet flight on Tuesday evening, said they faced hours of inconvenience after the airline repeatedly delayed the flight, allegedly without prior information. Finally, they flew out around six hours late. The flight (SG-51) was to fly from Pune at 8.30pm and land in Dubai at 10.15pm. The actual take-off happened only around 2.30am on Wednesday, and they landed in Dubai around 4am. Ayush Gupta, a doctor who was flying to Dubai for the World Health Expo, told TOI that he checked had the airline’s website in advance and found that the flight was delayed to first 9.40pm and then 11.30pm. “I didn’t receive any communication from the airline regarding the delay. I checked it myself and found out. I reached the airport for the flight at 9.40pm, but the flight kept getting delayed. The timing of the flight extended first to 9.40pm, then to 11.30pm, then 12.10am and then again to 12.40am,” the Pimpri resident told TOI. He added that after 12.40am, there were no updates or any information. “The timings of the flight kept changing every 15-20 minutes. There were many flyers waiting and all were frustrated by the lack of proper information. With the delay only increasing, the absence of support further enraged many flyers. No refreshments were served, and when some flyers demanded compensation for the same, the ground staff told them to contact customer care. Due to the delay, my day today is wasted as I am really tired,” Gupta said.Replying to Gupta’s queries on X (formerly Twitter), the airline maintained that the flight was delayed due to an operational reason and was scheduled to take off at 12.10am. Saif Motiwala, whose parents, both senior citizens, were travelling on the flight, vented his anger on social media (X). “Booked a flight to Dubai for my parents, but the airline ruined it and made a joke. At least eight times, they changed the scheduled departure time. It is 2am and the flight still has not taken off. No replies, no call and no compensation from the airline’s side,” he wrote. SpiceJet, in its official statement, said that the delay was due to an operational issue in its previous rotation. “Passengers were informed of the change well in advance at 4.40pm about the revised departure time of 12.10am through email and SMS on their registered contact details. However, the flight was further delayed due to operational issues and departed at 2.30am. The claim that flight departure was revised multiple times is incorrect. The flight was rescheduled twice and passengers were informed accordingly,” an airline spokesperson claimed. Another flyer, who requested to remain anonymous, said that giving prior information did not solve anything. “It has become the habit of airlines, especially SpiceJet, to hide behind the garb of providing prior information about the delay. Don’t they realise that it doesn’t solve the hassles of flyers? People mostly travel as per a proper itinerary and everything then goes topsy-turvy. To top it all, at the airport, the ground staff remains indifferent and does not interact with affected flyers in a proper manner. The airlines are just hellbent on proving that flyers are lying,” he said.
