By More than 180 passengers were stuck overnight at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport after SpiceJet flight SG 939 to Pune was delayed for six hours and eventually cancelled.
The flight was scheduled to leave at 9:15 p.m. on July 27, but passengers ended up waiting inside the terminal until close to 3:30 a.m.
SpiceJet said the delay stemmed from a technical issue with the aircraft, which was later cancelled once the fault persisted.
Many passengers said they were kept in the dark about the flight’s status for much of the night, particularly in the final ninety minutes before cancellation.
Some travellers also said the airline did not provide adequate food or water despite the lengthy delay.
The situation escalated into a heated exchange between passengers and SpiceJet staff at the airport as frustration grew.
Passengers have asked the DGCA and civil aviation ministry to look into the matter, while SpiceJet confirmed it arranged an alternate flight for those affected and regretted the disruption.
According to DGCA’s Civil Aviation Requirements, airlines must provide free meals and refreshments once a domestic delay exceeds a set number of hours, and must communicate the reason for the delay accurately rather than leaving passengers uninformed.
The DGCA has previously issued show-cause notices to Indian carriers over service lapses, including inadequate passenger communication and failure to provide mandated facilities during long delays.
SpiceJet is one of India’s major low-cost carriers, operating both domestic and select international routes out of hubs including Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.
Passengers have increasingly taken to social media to report flight delays and cancellations, often tagging the DGCA and the civil aviation ministry directly to seek faster redressal.
Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport is India’s busiest airport, handling a high volume of daily domestic and international departures, which can compound the impact of any single flight’s delay or cancellation.
(Image: Photo by Kprateek88, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0/2.5/2.0/1.0)
