SpiceJet had highest no. of flyers affected by flight cancellations from Jan to May: Govt

SpiceJet had the highest number of passengers who were affected due to flight cancellations from January to May this year, according to the data presented by Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri in Parliament on Thursday.

In response to a written question in the Lok Sabha, Puri presented the data that showed 70,060 SpiceJet passengers were affected due to flight cancellations from January to May.

The data also showed that SpiceJet paid over Rs 1.27 crore as compensation to the affected passengers in the said period.

IndiGo stood at number two as 62,958 of its passengers were affected due to flight cancellations in the said period and the airline paid a total compensation amount of Rs 12.14 lakh to these passengers, the data showed.

As many as 50,920 passengers of Jet Airways were also affected due to flight cancellations in the said period, it showed. The beleaguered airline paid Rs 53.31 lakh as compensation to these passengers.

As Jet Airways ran out of funds, it shut down its operations on April 17. Before that, for weeks, the airline had been cancelling flights in high numbers as its aircraft were being taken back by the lessors due to non-payment of dues.

A total of 37,079 Air India passengers were affected due to flight cancellations in the January-May period and the national carrier paid Rs 89.4 lakh as compensation to these passengers, the data presented by Puri showed.