Mum-Dubai flight delayed by 14 hrs

Mumbai: A SpiceJet flight from Mumbai to Dubai was delayed for over 14 hours on Monday due to technical and operational reasons, said the airline, causing immense harassment to passengers. The flight, first scheduled for 2am, took off after 4.30pm with a new operating crew as the previous crew exceeded the flight duty time limitation (FDTL).
“We called the airline in advance and checked if the flight would take off as scheduled due to a spike in disruptions recently,” Shilpa Mohite, a Dubai resident booked on the flight told HT. “They insisted that the flight was on time, checked us in and made us board the aircraft at 2:30am.”
Passengers were seated inside the aircraft till 4am, when they were told that the flight had been rescheduled due to operational reasons and asked to deboard. “We asked the airline staff to return our checked in luggage so we could book another flight, but they said it would take at least four hours and our immigration check would have to be redone. They assured us again that the flight would definitely leave at 10 am,” Mohite said.
Some passengers who did not have checked in luggage opted to cancel their tickets at 4am but were unable to find any other flight. Meanwhile, the airline staff kept revising the timing for the rescheduled flight, from 10am to 1pm to 3pm to 3.30pm.
“All of us who were booked on the flight were very angry and marched to immigration area, where the officials and security personnel caught hold of the SpiceJert staff and asked them them resolve our issue,” said Mohite. The passengers finally boarded the flight at 4.15pm, she added.
A SpiceJet spokesperson said the flight was delayed due to technical and operational reasons. “The technical issue was promptly resolved and the aircraft was cleared for operation. But it was delayed due to restrictions at the airport, which led to the operating crew exceeding their flight duty time limitation,” said the spokesperson.
The flight finally took off at 4.30pm after the operating crew was replaced. “We sincerely apologise to our passengers for the inconvenience caused,” the spokesperson said.