SpiceJet cancels 16 flights, chaos at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport

Hyderabad: SpiceJet Airlines faced the ire of passengers at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here, after it announced the cancellation of 16 flights on Tuesday.

Most of the flights were cancelled till late afternoon on Tuesday, and this led to chaos at the Hyderabad airport. Around 400 passengers had to wait for hours.

Airport officials said around 16 SpiceJet flights out of 24 were cancelled on Tuesday.

“Our flight to Goa was scheduled on Monday at 1 pm. It was initially delayed till evening, and later, we were told it has been rescheduled to Tuesday.

On Tuesday, we were made to wait from morning to evening. Finally, we were told that the flight was cancelled,” said Madhu Reddy, a resident of Hyderabad.

He added, “Though the airline officials said they will refund our ticket amount, they were not clear as to whether they will refund it to us or the agency.”

For passengers with infants it was worse. Two children were hospitalised, and several senior citizens suffered, said Mr Reddy.

Phone numbers given by the airline were working, nor was the staff responding properly, he added.

Narayana and his family were planning to go to Chennai. Instead, they ended up getting stuck at the airport on Tuesday, “Our flight was scheduled for 5.45 am. We were informed that the flight had been cancelled only at 11.30 am,” said Mr Narayana.

Passengers were furious due to the of lack of response from SpiceJet. Meanwhile, airport officials said, the situation was under control as all passengers were promised refunds.

It is learnt most flights stood cancelled or delayed till Tuesday evening with the airline understood to have been denied fuel uplift across several major airports like Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad.