Anger spilled over from furious passengers of a Spicejet flight from Bengaluru to Mumbai at the Kempegowda International Airport on Wednesday after their flight got delayed by 14.5 hours due to twin reasons - non-availability of critical equipment required for the flight to fly and the shift hours of the crew getting over.
After waiting more than 12 hours to board a SpiceJet aircraft to Mumbai, at least 250 passengers caused a commotion at the Bengaluru airport on Wednesday. The flight was supposed to depart at 5 a.m., but passengers were unable to board even in the afternoon.
After the customers lost their cool and got into a fight with airline personnel, accusing them of failing to make other arrangements for them despite repeated deadlines, chaos followed. According to the passengers, the airline stated there was a technical problem with the Mumbai-bound flight.
According to reports, the passengers first received a message that the flight has been rescheduled to take off earlier than usual. After the passengers boarded the plane, they waited inside for two hours only to be asked to get down and return to boarding gate number 15 and were reportedly told that the flight has been rescheduled to 12 pm. Later, it was rescheduled to 3 pm and the flight was later scheduled to take off at 8.30 pm.
Passengers were irritated and began questioning airline personnel about the unexpected delay and lack of communication. Passengers said that airline authorities were not sufficiently reacting to their complaints.
Some people took to social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to vent. Some went so far as to name civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and the Airports Authority of India.
"Endured an 8-hour delay on a SpiceJet flight SG8729, causing significant disruptions and inconveniences.I am extremely distressed by this.Disappointed by the airline's inability to manage the situation effectively".
— Divya Jyoti (@__j__divya)Hi can you stop advertising and selling SpiceJet flights on your platforms? These idiots never fly on time and keep doing their stupidity on all routes
— Resident (@dnightwarrior11)SpiceJet, is this how you treat loyal customers? Is this your strategy for growth and competition? Do you value your customers at all?
My query deserves attention, not silence. SpiceJet, address my issue promptly and compensate me for the inconvenience caused.
SpiceJet has received criticism in the past for operational delays. Only a few days ago, there was a commotion at the Delhi airport as customers clashed with airline personnel over a seven-hour delay for a Patna-bound aircraft.