NEW DELHI: A significant number of passengers disembarked SpiceJetThe Hyderabad-Delhi flight from Hyderabad was forced to walk on the airport tarmac on Saturday night because the airline was unable to provide a bus to take them to the terminal for about 45 minutes, sources said.
Aviation regulator DGCA is investigating the incident, sources told PTI on Sunday.
However, Spicejet said there was a brief delay in the arrival of the buses, and once the buses arrived, all passengers, including those who had started on foot, traveled with them from the tarmac to the terminal building.
“Despite repeated requests from our staff, some passengers headed towards the terminal. They had barely walked a few yards when the buses arrived. All passengers, including those who had started on foot, took the buses to the terminal building
Passengers are not allowed to enter the tarmac at Delhi Airport as it poses a security risk. On the asphalt there is a demarcated path only for vehicles.
Therefore, airlines use buses to take passengers along the marked route from the terminal to the plane or vice versa.
Currently, SpiceJet operates no more than 50 percent of its flights in accordance with Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) orders.
The regulator suspended the airline’s flights for an eight-week period in July because its planes were involved in at least eight incidents of technical malfunctions between June 19 and July 5.
SpiceJet’s Hyderabad-Delhi flight — with 186 passengers on board — landed at its destination around 11:24 p.m. Saturday, sources said.
A bus came immediately and took some of the passengers to Terminal 3, it said.
The rest of the passengers waited about 45 minutes, and not seeing a bus coming for them, they headed toward the terminal about 1.5 km away, they noted.
After those passengers walked on tarmac for about 11 minutes, a bus came to take them to the terminal around 12:20 a.m., they said.
When asked about the incident, SpiceJet said in a statement: “The information that passengers on SpiceJet’s Hyderabad-Delhi flight on August 6 were forced to walk to the terminal is false and is denied.
“There was a short delay in the arrival of the coaches to transfer passengers from the tarmac to the terminal building.”
“Despite repeated requests from our staff, some passengers headed towards the terminal. They had barely walked a few yards when the buses arrived. All passengers, including those who had started on foot, took the buses to the terminal building,” the airline noted.