Weary passengers of SpiceJet flight SG-51 at Pune International Airport; the departure board shows the Dubai flight marked as delayed. (Photos by special arrangement)A SpiceJet flight from Pune to Dubai was delayed by eight hours on Wednesday, stranding over 100 passengers at Pune International Airport for most of the night, with flyers alleging a lack of communication, food, and medical assistance from the airline.The flight SG-51, scheduled to depart Pune at 9 pm and land in Dubai at 10.55 pm, instead took off at 5 am on Thursday and reached Dubai around 6.50 am, nearly eight hours behind schedule. Passengers said they had been at the airport since 6 pm on Wednesday, well before the original departure time, with no confirmed update on when the flight would actually leave.Surender, a flyer who recounted the ordeal on X, said passengers were kept completely in the dark through the hours-long wait. “We received no updates, no clarity. This is unacceptable,” he wrote, adding that over 100 passengers were affected.Among those stranded were passengers who needed medical attention, for whom Surender alleged no medical support was provided despite the extended delay. He said that each time passengers pressed the airline to announce a specific departure time, they were told it would be announced “after one hour”.He said, “No food was arranged for us through the night-long wait, despite senior citizens and women being among those stranded. When we sought help from airline staff, we were told that such assistance was beyond their rule book.”The Indian Express has approached SpiceJet for comment. The airline has yet to issue an official statement addressing passengers’ complaints about the Pune-Dubai flight delay.A pattern of service and communication lapsesOn Tuesday night, a Delhi-Pune SpiceJet flight’s air-conditioning system malfunctioned as the crew prepared for takeoff, leaving the cabin with over 100 passengers sweltering. The flight was eventually cancelled following passenger protests, and those on board were left stranded at the airport for over six hours before a replacement flight took them to Pune early Wednesday morning.Story continues below this adOn August 5, passengers on a Pune-Delhi SpiceJet flight complained that no food or beverages were served during the early-morning journey.The three incidents point to a pattern of service and communication lapses in SpiceJet’s operations within just a week, raising questions about the airline’s preparedness and passenger-handling protocols.Shubham Kurale is a journalist based in Pune and has studied journalism at the Ranade Institute. He primarily reports on transport and is interested in covering civic issues, sports, gig workers, environmental issues, and queer issues. X:@ShubhamKurale1 ... Read MoreClick here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our storiesTags:Pune airportSpiceJet