Scoot flight to Bangkok delayed 7 hours at Changi Airport due to technical issue

SINGAPORE - Passengers on a Scoot flight to Bangkok on Sunday (Nov 25) were stranded at Changi Airport for nearly seven hours due to a technical issue with the aircraft.

Flight TR616 was due to depart the airport's Terminal 2 at 5.30pm, but took off only at 12.28am, after travellers were transferred to a replacement aircraft.

As a result of this, the return Bangkok-Singapore flight was also delayed for about six hours.

In response to queries by The Straits Times, a spokesman for the low-cost carrier said that the delay was caused by a technical issue with the aircraft nose gear door.

"As rectification works took longer than expected, Scoot decided to deploy a replacement aircraft to minimise further disruption to customers' travel plans," the spokesman said.

Affected passengers were given refreshments during the delay, the spokesman added.

The airline also apologised to customers for the inconvenience caused as well as for the disruption to their travel plans.

Facebook user Ng Bee Lin, who was booked on the Scoot flight, said at about 10pm on the airline's page that she and other passengers "were initially jovial but are now an irate lot".

She added that only a small bag of snacks and a bottle of water were distributed to passengers, who included the young and the elderly.

Another Facebook user, Adrit Raha, who was on the returning flight from Bangkok to Singapore said that he was stranded at Suvarnabhumi Airport without information from the airline.

That flight was scheduled to depart at 7.55pm on Sunday, but was re-timed to 1.55am on Monday.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.