Low-cost carrier SpiceJet Ltd has often claimed it is "India's favourite airline" and has cited its high passenger traffic to back up the claim. But it probably isn’t.
According to data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), in the last 13 months, SpiceJet wrongly denied boarding to 3,377 passengers, the highest among all airlines in India.
The airline has paid Rs 64.66 lakh rupees as compensation to affected passengers in the same period.
In comparison, Air India and GoFirst, which carried a similar number of passengers as SpiceJet, had denied boarding to 2,449 passengers and 118 passengers, respectively.
In 2022, SpiceJet carried 10.671 million passengers, Air India carried 10.774 million passengers, and GoFirst 10,902 passengers.
Market experts say that SpiceJet had a large number of denied boarding as the airline overbooked many flights, or cancelled and combined flights which led to overbooking.
Similarly, based on DGCA data, 52,223 passengers were affected by flight cancellations by SpiceJet in the last 13 months, and the airline paid customers Rs. 1.55 crore in compensation in the same period.
In comparison, 24,002 passengers and 4,425 passengers were affected by flight cancellations by Air India and GoFirst, respectively, in the past 13 months.
Similarly, 394,903 passengers were affected by delays of beyond 2 hours of SpiceJet's flights. The airline paid Rs 6.69 crore in compensation to passengers in the last 13 months.
In comparison, 212,894 passengers and 117,899 passengers were affected by delays of beyond 2 hours of flight by Air India and GoFirst, respectively, in the last 13 months.
Delay in refunds
A SpiceJet spokesperson told Moneycontrol that it credits refunds promptly on an immediate basis within a period of a maximum of seven days, but customers and travel agents don't agree.
According to multiple travel agents based in Delhi contacted by Moneycontrol, SpiceJet usually takes 2–3 weeks in providing refunds for tickets after promising the refunds.
"Most airlines provide refunds within 10 days after accepting to provide refunds for tickets, but SpiceJet usually takes a few weeks," said an executive from Delhi-based Welgrow Travels.
He added that for big-ticket bookings, especially, refunds usually take longer in the case of SpiceJet.
According to an official at online travel agency Yatra.com, SpiceJet usually takes around 10 days to process refunds. He added that the time taken to process refunds is due to bank processing rather due to clearances from SpiceJet to give the go-ahead to provide refunds to customers.
"We have been very prompt in crediting refunds as we did so during and post-COVID. To base an opinion on an isolated case or on a social media post and to generalize it would be very unfortunate as a few random cases are not unique to us but can be seen across the industry," the SpiceJet spokesperson said in response to queries sent by Moneycontrol.
A senior official in SpiceJet, on condition of anonymity, said that refunds in the case of bookings larger than 50 seats take around two weeks to process as the airline needs to file tax rebates for the cancelled bookings.
He added that while there is no cash-flow issue to provide refunds, processing time may vary based on individual cases.
An industry insider also echoed the same sentiment saying that as SpiceJet has limited staff in its accounts division and isn't actively hiring to fill in for staff let go after the COVID-19 pandemic, processing of refunds is being handled by a smaller team at SpiceJet.
Prashant Aggarwal, a passenger of the airline, told Moneycontrol that his refund from the airline has been pending for the last two weeks.
“They were not stating anything clearly. Every time I try and contact them for a refund they respond by saying that the refund has been processed and that I should check with my bank," Aggarwal said.
He added that in the last communication with the airline, he forwarded an email from his bank to SpiceJet saying that no refund amount has been processed but has not received any response from the airline yet.
Recurring issue
While Air India, GoFirst, and IndiGo have also had cases of customer service nightmares in the past year, with multiple cases of passengers urinating on fellow travellers in the case of Air India and GoFirst forgetting over 50 passengers and the flight to Delhi taking off without them.
SpiceJet has been in the limelight for the wrong reasons multiple times in 2022 as well, back in July 2022, the DGCA directed SpiceJet to operate just 50 percent of approved flights for 8 weeks following multiple snags reported by the airline.
DGCA said it reviewed the incidents on SpiceJet aircraft between April 1 and July 5 and found out that on a number of occasions, the aircraft either turned back to its originating station or continued landing to the destination with degraded safety margins.
Similarly, a poll conducted by Moneycontrol and LocalCircles in July 2022 revealed that around 44 percent of the respondents to the survey travelling on domestic routes said that they were avoiding SpiceJet flights over safety concerns.
The DGCA had also pointed out that the airline has been in financial doldrums, as a review carried out in September 2021 revealed that SpiceJet had been missing payments to vendors. SpiceJet has been operating on cash and carry mode for the last 13 months for all its domestic flights in India.
SpiceJet has been struggling with cash-flow issues since the outbreak of the pandemic and has received funding worth Rs 1,350 crore under the government's Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme till date.
The low-cost carrier on February 21 said that its board will meet on February 24 to discuss and consider the issuance of equity shares on a preferential basis. The airline will also declare its financial results for the October-December quarter on February 24.
While the DGCA does not have any rules against delays in providing refunds to passengers, it does strictly monitor and ensures the issue of refunds in India. Finally, SpiceJet may not have a refund issue brewing as it usually processes refunds to passengers and travel agents, it clearly has a customer service problem.
DGCA Rules
According to the DGCA website, an airline should give a full refund of the amount or an alternative flight if it informs the passengers about a cancellation less than two weeks before the flight’s departure but at least 24 hours before the time of departure.
If the airline fails to inform the passenger at least 24 hours before the time of departure, or if they miss a connecting flight booked on the same ticket number because of the cancellation, then it has to pay compensation ranging between Rs 5,000 and Rs. 10,000 to the passenger.
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