Pune: The plan of over 150 passengers to celebrate Chhath with their relatives back home nosedived in the early hours of Friday after cash-strapped SpiceJet cancelled its Pune-Patna flight following repeated delays and gate changes.The cancellation, announced around 2.30am on Friday after hours of uncertainty from Thursday night, left several passengers scrambling to find alternative travel arrangements. A few feared they would miss the festival altogether.A reply was awaited to TOI’s WhatsApp query to a SpiceJet spokesperson on Friday regarding the flight cancellation till going to press.SpiceJet’s Pune-Patna flight (SG-646) was scheduled to depart at 8.10pm and land in the Bihar capital at 10.20pm. Businessman Harshvardhan Mishra said the airline informed him in the evening that the departure had been postponed to 11.45pm.“I reached the airport around 9pm. Boarding passes were issued around 9.45pm, but things went downhill thereafter. The gate was then changed from 7 to 9, where there were barely 15-20 chairs for passengers. We were told that the aircraft had arrived and boarding would begin around 12.45am. The assurances continued until 2am. Passengers started losing their patience. Finally, around 2.30am, the airline’s ground staff announced that the flight had been cancelled,” Mishra told TOI.Mhalunge’s Himanshu Singh, another passenger, alleged that the airline kept changing its explanation for the delay. He said passengers were initially told that an aircraft arriving from Patna would operate the return flight.“The cabin crew, told to board the aircraft, were subsequently asked to get off. We were then informed that the aircraft would undergo checks, which could take three to four hours. Later, the explanation changed to a technical glitch that prevented the plane from flying to Patna. We were told that the aircraft would be flown to Delhi for repairs,” Singh said.He alleged that SpiceJet’s three ground staffers were unable to connect the passengers with a supervisor. “They told us that they were the only staff available. They also said refreshments, food and even drinking water were out of the question because the airline had no money and they had not received salaries for five months,” he said.Amid haze over the flight’s status and limited seats at the new gate, tempers flared, forcing CISF personnel to intervene. Some women passengers wept, fearing they would not reach home in time for Chhath.Several passengers sat on the airport terminal floor in protest, playing devotional Chhath songs at a high pitch. In the absence of refreshments from the airline, a group of passengers bought small mineral water bottles and distributed them among those stranded.Against this backdrop, TOI asked Union minister of state for civil aviation and Pune MP Murlidhar Mohol if govt was considering a temporary suspension of SpiceJet flights. He said he would need three to four days to respond. Earlier, Union civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu had said govt was monitoring the airline’s financial health.Mhalunge’s Singh, among the passengers accommodated on a flight scheduled for Friday, received a notification about its revised departure time at 10.30pm. “The ground staff had warned us that there was no guarantee that even this flight would operate. If it is cancelled again, I will have to abandon my plan to celebrate Chhath with my family. Last-minute fares to Patna are around Rs30,000 per passenger,” he said.Businessman Mishra booked an alternative itinerary from Pune to Indore, then Delhi and finally Patna, at a cost of Rs28,000. He said he was recently discharged from a hospital after treatment and was severely diabetic.“I will take legal action against the airline and other agencies after returning. I called Pune police for help on Thursday night, but received no assistance from them or the airport authorities,” he said.
