8-hour delay of Goa-Pune flight hassles flyers

Pune: Around eight-hour delay of a SpiceJet flight from the Manohar International Airport in Goa to Pune on Thursday evening and lack of proper information from the airline’s ground staffers left about 50 passengers booked on it hassled.Ishan Singh, travelling to Pune with his family, including his one-and-a-half-year-old child, said the flight (SG-1080) was slated to take off at 5.20pm and land in Pune at 6.25pm. The plane took off at 1.22am on Friday and reached Pune at 2.08am.A spokesperson of SpiceJet said, “The flight SG 1080, scheduled to operate from Goa to Pune, was delayed because of a technical issue encountered during its previous rotation.”“As a result, the subsequent Pune-Jaipur leg was also impacted. Passengers of both flights were informed well in advance about the revised departure times — six hours prior for the Goa-Pune sector and eight hours prior for the Pune-Jaipur sector — enabling them to plan their journey to the airport accordingly. Passengers were assisted throughout and served refreshments. SpiceJet regrets the inconvenience caused.

”Singh from Wakad had a different story to share. He requested the ground staff in Goa to provide them with some kind of accommodation at the airport because he was travelling with an infant. “The ground staff only told me that we could go and ask for lounge access,” he said.“We had checked out of the hotel around 11.30am and reached the airport by 12noon. After arriving at the airport, we learned that the flight was rescheduled to 8.45pm.

The airline might have sent messages to flyers, but I didn’t receive any,” Singh said.After a while, he learned that the flight was further delayed to 10.10pm. The ground staff said there were some technical problems with the aircraft and engineers had not given it a go-ahead. “Then we got another text message stating that the flight would take off at 11.10pm,” Singh said.Many flyers travelling to Pune and Jaipur lost patience.

“They questioned the ground staff on the issue and why they were not being served any refreshments or provided with accommodation. The answers from the ground staff were vague. Approximately 30% of the flyers cancelled their tickets and opted for a full refund. Then another message came that the flight would fly at 12.10am, triggering altercations between flyers and the ground staff.

The CISF had to intervene. The plane finally took off from Goa at 1.22am,” Singh said.The same aircraft was to fly from Pune to Jaipur at 7.30pm on Thursday. It flew out of the city at 3am on Friday and landed in Jaipur at 4.54am instead of 9.50pm on Thursday.