Dubai-bound SpiceJet passengers protest after delays stretch beyond 24 hours

Around 200 passengers protested after two Dubai-bound SpiceJet flights were delayed

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2 MIN READ
SpiceJet assures safety after minor mid-air incident
SpiceJet assures safety after minor mid-air incident

New Delhi: Around 200 passengers protested at Delhi airport after two SpiceJet flights to Dubai were delayed for more than 24 hours, leaving travellers waiting without clear departure times.

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The disruption affected flights SG 5111 and SG 5105, both scheduled to operate from Delhi to Dubai.

Flight SG 5111 was due to depart at 7.45am on Monday and was delayed several times, first to Monday evening and later to 9am on Tuesday. It had still not departed at the time of reporting.

Flight tracking platform Flightradar24 listed the service as cancelled.

SG 5105 was scheduled to leave Delhi at 6.45pm on Monday and was later rescheduled to 12.30pm on Tuesday, but also remained grounded at the time of reporting.

Passengers protest at Terminal 3

The protests began late Monday evening at Delhi airport’s Terminal 3 and continued into Tuesday, with passengers demanding information about when they would be able to travel.

Passengers said they had received no fresh updates from the airline and were left without clarity over departure times, food or accommodation.

Videos circulating on social media showed stranded travellers sitting on the terminal floor while waiting for information.

Media reports said SpiceJet staff were not present to address passenger concerns for a considerable period. Delhi airport staff later provided food and water and arranged a rest area for affected travellers.

SpiceJet cites grounded aircraft

SpiceJet said the disruption followed the grounding of an aircraft and that alternate arrangements were being made.

A SpiceJet spokesperson said: “SpiceJet flights SG 5111 and SG 5105, operating from Delhi to Dubai, have been delayed due to operational reasons following the grounding of an aircraft. Alternate flights are being arranged to accommodate the affected passengers, and the airline is making every effort to minimise the inconvenience caused.”

Airport officials have also taken up the matter with SpiceJet executives, according to media reports.

- With inputs from agencies.

Nivetha Dayanand is Assistant Business Editor at Gulf News, covering aviation, financial markets and commodities. A business and financial journalist with a strong interest in multimedia storytelling, she regularly takes complex financial and economic subjects beyond the written word, producing explainer videos that make them easier for a wider audience to understand. Nivetha has interviewed senior policymakers, business leaders and global financial figures both on and off camera. Her past guests include UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud, a member of the House of Saud and the founder and CEO of KBW Ventures, Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund and Indian ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and N. Chandrababu Naidu. She has also hosted and moderated panels, conferences and awards shows, bringing her newsroom experience to live conversations on business, finance and the economy. An Erasmus Mundus journalism alum, Nivetha is drawn to stories that affect people directly and to reporting that gives a platform to voices that might otherwise go unheard. She was among the first journalists to speak to Petrofac employees in the UAE about unpaid salaries, broke the news of the planned demolition of Dubai’s well-known “Toyota Building”, and helped set the record straight on widely circulated claims that a giant replica of the Moon was coming to Dubai. More recently, her exclusive interview with EDGE Group CEO Hamad Al Marar revealed how the UAE-based defence group deployed its systems along the country’s shore border and established a geofence around the UAE within 48 hours of the February 28 escalation. Prior to joining Gulf News, Nivetha worked at ITP Media, where she helped launch Finance Middle East, a new publication covering the region’s financial sector. Her role spanned reporting and editing, video production, interviews and events. Across print, digital, and video, she focuses on finding the people behind business stories and explaining why those stories matter to the audience reading or watching them.

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