Passengers protest outside Surat airport as Spicejet cancels the flight after keeping them waiting for hours

Surat: Passengers who had booked Spicejet tickets for Surat – Jodhpur journey today staged protest outside the Surat airport over cancellation of flight.

The scheduled departure time of Surat – Jodhpur flight was 9.10 am and passengers had started arriving at airport after 6.00 am. The passengers were first communicated that their flight was late and it would depart at around noon. Later they were informed that the flight would depart post 1.00 pm. As there was no sign of departure, the passengers when inquired were told that the flight would depart post 3.00 pm.

After repeated announcements of reschedules, they were finally conveyed at around 5.30 pm that the flight was cancelled as landing at Jodhpur would not be possible now.

The passengers told media persons that during their about 12 hours waiting period at airport, they were just offered drinking water, that too when pressed.

The passengers complained that Spicejet staffer Mr. Tarun was speaking in rough manner with them.

The passengers said they had hotel bookings in Jodhpur worth thousands of Rupees. One passenger said, ‘we have booked Umed Palace hotel in Jodhpur and my 1.5 year old daughter has reached Jodhpur already from Mumbai with a caretaker. Now she is there and we are in great worry here.’

Passengers said they requested Spicejet to shift them to tomorrow morning’s flight, but they were told tomorrow’s flight was already fully booked. They were also told that there was no scope to shift them to any Surat – Jodhpur Spicejet flight during next two-three days as all flights were fully booked.

It must be mentioned here that yesterday a teacher Rakeshkumar from Mota Varachha area of Surat had staged hunger strike outside the Surat airport as the Spicejet flight for which he had booked ticket was cancelled without prior intimation. Rakeshkumar said on reaching airport he was told the Spicejet flight was cancelled. The staff didn’t give any proper reply on refund.

DeshGujarat