Day after breather, tough day at airport for SpiceJet

CHENNAI: “I know it’s not your fault, but I have an evening flight from Kochi to Bangalore. If I have to take another plane to Kochi now it’s going to cost me 16 grand! Will you pay for that?
A day after the Aviation Ministry “requested” banks to lend to SpiceJet, its ground staffs across the country were subjected to such angry exertions of customers.

About 26 flights slated for departure from the Chennai airport were grounded. Flyers had they lugged their baggage only to spot a notice stuck on the glass wall of the SpiceJet counter saying “all flights have been cancelled for the day due to operational reasons.” Support staff gave back statements of refunds. Customers had to bear a cancellation charge of around Rs 500, and electronic transfers were promised.

But, for customers who had booked through travel agents there was a lot of uncertainty as SpiceJet officials at the airport were unable to provide details about the refund: “When will my agent get the message? When will I get the money?”

While those slated for emergency travel had to buy tickets from other airlines, others went back home very disgruntled. For Suchita Singh, an engineering student heading home in Kolkata, her vacation did not take off either. She had booked a SpiceJet flight in August. Looking at the adverse news in the papers over the week, Singh advanced her booking to a morning flight, which was cancelled by noon after two rounds of reassuring Delayed announcements. “The trouble is I have to choose between home and a stiffly priced air-ticket now,” says Singh.

Hundreds like Singh got we-are-sorry messages from Sanjiv Kapoor, the Chief operating officer of the airline. “Apologies to all our customers affected by our temporary ongoing challenges,” he Tweeted. Another one raised hopes: “Flights scheduled to depart on or after 4 pm today will operate.”

But the Chennai Airport Director Deepak Shastri told ET that a few flights departing from other airports can make the airline operational, technically. “In the capacity of the Chennai airport director, I can say almost all SpiceJet flights for the day have been cancelled,” he said.

The airports authority has not put the airline on cash-and-carry – pay for release of every plane to take off – but a decision on that would be taken on the depletion of deposit SpiceJet maintains with the authority.

The airline’s sudden plunge is on account of oil companies holding back fuel over dues, which Sanjiv Kapoor puts at Rs 14 crore. The company spends over Rs 3,000 crore a year on fuel and have never defaulted, Kapoor said in a statement.