New Delhi. Passengers were angry on Tuesday after long delays in two SpiceJet flights from Delhi to Dubai. Around 200 passengers sat on the floor in Terminal-3 of Delhi Airport and protested against the airline. During this, the passengers also raised slogans of 'Airline is a thief'. Many passengers were waiting for their flight at the airport since Monday.
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Flight timings changed again and again
The matter pertains to SpiceJet flights SG 5111 and SG 5105. SG 5111 was to depart from Delhi at 8:30 am on Monday and reach Dubai at 11:15 am. The scheduled departure time of the second flight SG 5105 was 10:10 pm on Monday and it was to reach Dubai at 12:55 am. The passengers allege that no clear reason was given to them for the delay in the flight. Instead the flight timings kept changing continuously. Both the planes could not take off even till Tuesday afternoon, after which the passengers started protesting inside the airport.
Entire schedule disrupted due to grounding of one plane
SpiceJet has blamed operational problems for the delay. According to the airline, one of its aircraft was grounded, due to which the operation of both the flights was affected. Arrangements are being made to send the passengers to Dubai through alternative flights. The airline has also apologized for the inconvenience caused to the passengers. Actually, an aircraft being grounded means that it is not allowed to fly for some reason. There could be a technical problem, security related reason or regulatory instructions behind this.
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Questions regarding the record of flying on time
Questions have already been raised regarding the operations of SpiceJet. The airline's domestic market share declined to 1.6 percent in July, from 1.9 percent in June. During this period, about 1.87 lakh passengers traveled by SpiceJet. At the same time, IndiGo's share in the domestic aviation market was 67.4 percent, Air India Group's 24 percent and Akasa Air's 5.5 percent. In July, only 34.5 percent of SpiceJet flights could operate on schedule. Last week, Civil Aviation Minister K. Rammohan Naidu had also said that the Civil Aviation Ministry and DGCA are keeping an eye on the financial condition of SpiceJet as well as its operations.