Passengers Claim SpiceJet Made Them Wait For Hours At Delhi Airport Aerobridge. Airline Reacts
Spicejet is the latest in a long line of Indian airlines to make headlines for all the wrong reasons. Passengers aboard a SpiceJet flight bound for Bengaluru had to endure a lengthy wait.
Passengers on a SpiceJet flight heading for Bengaluru had to wait for a long time at the Delhi airport's aerobridge on Tuesday, with the airline claiming the flight was delayed due to weather disruption, which caused entering personnel to exceed their duty time limit.
One of the passengers posted a video on social media depicting a large group of co-passengers waiting at the aerobridge. Some of them can be heard asking for water in the footage.
Location - Delhi International Airport (Terminal 3) Gate no. 55
— Soumil Vlogs (@SoumilVlogs) January 11, 2023
Date - 10th January 2023
Airline - SpiceJet
Flight no. - SG8133 Delhi to Bangalore@flyspicejet @AjaySingh_SG How is this Cool? pic.twitter.com/wXV3fvFwbD
The incident occurred on SpiceJet flight SG 8133 from Delhi to Bengaluru.
The worst hospitality I’ve ever seen, all the passengers of @flyspicejet #SG8133 flying from Delhi to Bangalore have been standing in this huge queue for two hours now, with no communication from the staff or the crew, and not even letting us through!#STRANDED #spicejet pic.twitter.com/mz8hnwgke0
— Vidhisha Shankar (@VidhishaShankar) January 10, 2023
This is how @flyspicejet is working towards becoming no 1🤔
— Yanshu | 0xyanshu.eth/near (@0xyanshu) January 10, 2023
Flight SG 8133 was supposed to depart at 14:00 from Delhi, but it’s 15:50 & we’ve been standing in this huge queue, nobody from the crew or staff is telling us anything!#indigoflight #airindia #spicejet pic.twitter.com/ZzrRNhaqhM
According to a SpiceJet spokesperson, the flight was delayed due to network weather disruption and the aircraft's previous rotation.
"As a result, the incoming crew was not legal to operate the succeeding flight to Bengaluru, and the crew was allocated from another incoming flight that was legal due to duty time limitations," the spokesperson said in a statement, according to a PTI report.
According to the statement, after passing through security, passengers were asked to wait at the aerobridge, as stated in the report.
"Passengers on the lower floor near the aircraft door and aerobridge passage were provided water. The video was shot outside of the boarding gate which had limited access. All passengers on the said flight were provided service recovery vouchers," it added.
Furthermore, the airline stated that the usual turnaround time for a Boeing aircraft at Delhi airport is 40-45 minutes and that this particular trip took around 20 minutes longer than the average turnaround time.
Spicejet joins a long list of Indian airlines that have recently made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Recently, a Go First flight from Bengaluru to Delhi took off without 55 passengers. After their stuff was carried aboard the aeroplane, they were trapped in a bus on the tarmac.
Passengers tweeted about the incident, which brought it to light.
Go First Airlines, which came under fire on Tuesday for reportedly leaving over fifty people behind in a bus at Bengaluru airport on Monday, issued an official apology statement, citing the incident as 'inadvertent oversight'.
Air India has been the hardest hit, with two incidences of people peeing inside its planes mid-flight going viral, prompting the aviation regulator DCGA to intervene and take action against the Tata-owned airline.
IndiGo, Go First, and Vistara was all in the news for a variety of reasons, including disgruntled passengers, mismanagement, technical issues in flight, bogus bomb threats, and aircraft leaving several passengers behind.
(With Inputs From Agencies)