Pune: SpiceJet’s operational troubles spilled over onto passengers yet again as its Delhi–Pune flight was first rescheduled and then cancelled in the early hours of Thursday, leaving several flyers scrambling for alternatives and facing steep last-minute fares.Manish Kumar, who urgently needed to travel to Pune, told TOI that SpiceJet flight SG-939 was scheduled to depart Delhi at 4.55 pm on Wednesday and arrive in Pune at 7.25 pm. However, he received a message informing him that the flight had been rescheduled to 12.05 am.“Accordingly, I planned my travel to the airport. But before leaving, I checked the flight status once more and was surprised to see that the flight had been cancelled. I did not receive any message about the cancellation,” Kumar said.He said getting confirmation from SpiceJet’s customer service was another ordeal, with several calls either failing to connect or getting disconnected after 15 to 20 minutes on hold.“How can there be no information relayed to flyers? I had to travel urgently, so I booked an Air India flight to Pune, which took off around 2 am. The last-minute ticket cost me a lot of money. I have still not been able to find a way to claim a refund from SpiceJet for the cancelled flight,” Kumar said. He added that the only communication he received from the airline was the message informing him about the rescheduling.Another passenger said he and his wife had already reached the airport when they realised there was no clear communication about the flight’s status. He had booked the tickets through a travel portal.“If the airline was cancelling the flight, it should have ensured that the information reached us. We had to be in Pune for an important function, and the fresh tickets cost us almost Rs19,000,” he said.The passenger said repeated disruptions had made timely communication crucial for flyers. “With so many flights getting disrupted, the airline needs to find a way to ensure passengers are informed about the status of their flights under all circumstances,” he said.The latest disruption comes amid a series of operational issues faced by SpiceJet passengers. On Saturday, a Mumbai–Dubai flight was delayed by more than 30 hours, affecting over 100 flyers. The airline’s Pune–Dubai service was delayed by around five hours on Tuesday and was cancelled on Wednesday, according to flight-tracking data.SpiceJet, however, said passengers had been informed about the Delhi–Pune cancellation well in advance.“On Sept 30, a SpiceJet flight scheduled to operate from Delhi to Pune was cancelled due to operational reasons. Passengers were informed more than 12 hours in advance about the cancellation,” an airline spokesperson said.The airline said it proactively communicates operational changes through the registered contact details provided at the time of booking. In cases where tickets are booked through travel agents and the agent’s contact details are registered, the communication is sent to those details, the spokesperson added.
