5-hour delay leaves SpiceJet passengers fuming at airport

The SpiceJet flight SG-519 was scheduled to depart from Lohegaon Airport at 5.50 am reaching Bangalore at 7.15 am. However, the flight departed at 10.30 am, thereby delaying the Bangalore-Pune flight (SG528) that departs at 9.05 am to reach Pune at 10.45 am.

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Rahul Jain, a creative designer, who was among those stranded, said that the passengers were kept in the dark for hours about the expected time of departure by the airline. “The flight was scheduled to depart at 5.30 am. Late in the night — at about 1.30 am— I received a text message from the airline that the flight will depart at 9.15 am due to operational glitches. The passengers reached the airport accordingly. Even after we were done with all the formalities, there was no sign of boarding. Nobody gave us any explanation. Some passengers got angry and started shouting. One of the ground staff then approached and told us that the flight is expected to depart after 10.30 am due to runway closure. After a lot of argument, we finally left for Bangalore at 10.35 am,” said Jain.

Although SpiceJet officials could not be contacted for a comment, in response to a social media post about the delay by one of the passengers, the airline said that the ‘delay was due to runway closure at Pune Airport’. A senior official with the Airport Authority of India (AAI) contradicted this by saying that there wasn’t any ‘unexpected closure of the runway at the airport.’

“Every day, the runway is closed between 7.30am and 10.30 am for the Air Force operations. This has been happening for years. There was no unplanned closure of the runway on Sunday,” said an airport official.