Hundreds of passengers booked on late-night SpiceJet flights from Mumbai to Bangalore, Ahmedabad, and Delhi were subjected to a grueling, sleepless night on Wednesday night and Thursday early hours due to inordinate delays and cancellations. Among the worst hit was a SpiceJet red-eye flight from Mumbai to Bengaluru, which departed nine hours late on Thursday morning; a flight to Delhi that was delayed and eventually cancelled; and a flight to Ahmedabad that left about three hours late.
Passenger Ordeal on SpiceJet Flight SG 874
SpiceJet flight SG 874 was scheduled to depart at 1:55 am, with passengers arriving at the airport around midnight. One passenger, Shivangi Pathak, posted on X at 8:50 am: "What the hell is wrong with SpiceJet flights! Been waiting at Mumbai T1 airport since yesterday midnight and the flight keeps on being delayed!!" She uploaded a photograph of her boarding pass showing the rescheduled departure time as 7:45 am. In the background, a group of stranded passengers can be seen waiting at a departure gate, with a passenger coach bus visible beyond the glass wall of the terminal building. Other social media posts showed stranded passengers arguing with airline ground staff.
Additional Delays and Cancellations
Passengers venting over SpiceJet flight delays is a common theme on social media, and those on the Bangalore flight were not the only ones who spent a sleepless night at Mumbai airport. On Thursday morning, Seemant Nuniwala posted: "Worst experience with @flyspicejet. SG 164 cancelled after hours of delay, zero support at airport, broken refund link." She was referring to the Mumbai-Delhi Wednesday 11:15 pm flight, which was delayed and then eventually cancelled. She said she had to pay Rs 15,000 to book a new flight, with no response from SpiceJet. Among other major delayed SpiceJet flights were the 4:35 pm SG 880 to Ahmedabad, which was cancelled, and SG 696, a 2:20 am departure that left at 5:17 am.
According to Cirium data, the said flight finally departed at 10:46 am, about nine hours behind schedule. A statement from the airline is awaited.
SpiceJet's Poor On-Time Performance
Airline performance data for March, shared by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, showed SpiceJet had an on-time performance (OTP) of 43%, the lowest among Indian carriers. This means only 43% of SpiceJet flights departed on time, defined as a delay of more than 15 minutes from the scheduled departure time. The OTP data was collected from the top ten major airports in India. Within this, SpiceJet had the worst OTP at Mumbai airport, with only 29% (about one-third) of its flights departing on time. SpiceJet's best OTP was recorded at Hyderabad airport, where it had 64% on-time flights.
Delays and Cancellations Statistics
In March, a total of 0.92% of domestic flights were delayed by more than two hours, and within this category, SpiceJet had the highest percentage of delayed flights at 8.67%. This affected 32,753 passengers. The airline claimed it spent Rs 60.81 lakh on refreshments and arranging alternate SpiceJet flights. Overall, SpiceJet had the third highest cancellations after Indiaone Air and Alliance Air. Unlike the other two carriers, which have a market share of 0% (Indiaone Air) and 0.5% (Alliance Air) for the January to March period, SpiceJet has a share of 3.9%. The airline flew 16.87 lakh passengers in that three-month period.
