Airblue passengers stranded in Dubai

Dubai: Hundreds of passengers travelling on Airblue, a private Pakistani airline, remained stranded at Terminal 2 of the Dubai International Airport for more than 12 hours due to technical glitches in the aircraft.

At least eight flights, including four to Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi were delayed, leaving passengers fuming.

"I have been waiting at the airport for the last 12 hours and still don't know when the flight will leave for Islamabad," said Ashraf, one of the passengers.

He said the flight was scheduled to leave at 7am on Sunday but they were stranded in the boarding area of the terminal for at least 12 hours.

"The airline staff is not in sight and we were given only one meal in 12 hours and that was also a burger," he said.

Another passenger said that an 80-year-old woman is in great pain as she was travelling alone and did not have enough money to buy meals and water.

No backup

The airline faced flight delays when its only aircraft which serves flights from Dubai to different cities in Pakistan was grounded on Saturday at the Dubai airport due to technical glitch. There was no backup plane for Dubai passengers as hundreds of Dubai bound passengers also remained stranded yesterday in Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi.

"We are trying our best to fix the problem and the backlog would be cleared as soon as the aircraft is repaired," Suhail Shaikh, an Airblue official told Gulf News when contacted.

He said that the airline was trying its best to take care of stranded passengers but there were certain limitation.