Readers' issues raised

Delayed flight
I have been reading customer complaints in Gulf News and responses from the responsible companies. It is a good forum to highlight complaints and hear feedback from companies. I had a poor experience with Air Arabia in December, 2009 and could not get a proper response even after continuous follow up. I was travelling from Ahmedabad in India to Sharjah on December 25, 2009. The flight was scheduled to depart at 5am. The airline staff at the airport forced all passengers to check in and complete immigration formalities even though they announced that the flight was delayed by an hour.
Eventually the flight was delayed by more than 10 hours. The airline’s manager at the airport agreed to provide accommodation to around 40 passengers in one of the hotels as they created a noise — they were a group travelling on a package from a reputed tourism company. The rest of us faced a lot of inconvenience as no accommodation was provided to us and we could not leave the airport as we had completed the immigration formalities to travel. Air Arabia refused to communicate with me further. They are claiming that the accommodation was provided to the passengers who were scheduled to travel further after landing at Sharjah, which is not true. The group of passengers accommodated in the hotel were visiting Dubai for the Dubai Shopping Festival and had a reservation in a hotel located in Dubai. I would like to get a response from the airlines on this poor treatment and the reason for discrimination and unfair treatment by their staff at the Ahmedabad airport.
From Mr Paresh Karia
Sharjah

Mr Housam Raydan, public relations manager, Air Arabia, responds:
As the Air Arabia customer relations team explained to Mr Karia, accommodation was provided to passengers flying via Sharjah and not to passengers flying to Sharjah as their final destination. The reason being, transit passengers would have missed their connecting flights due to the delay, while passengers destined to Sharjah can still fly once weather conditions improve. We regret that Mr Karia and other passengers had to wait due to delay caused by fog, but it wouldn’t have been possible to identify delay time in advance as it was strictly dependent on the improvement of weather conditions. Considering the importance that on-time performance has to Air Arabia, we understand how frustrating this experience must have been for our passengers, even though it was for reasons beyond our control.

Mr Karia responds:
Thank you for your efforts to get this response from Air Arabia.
I don’t agree with their claim that the airlines provided accommodation to the passengers flying via Sharjah and not to the passengers flying to Sharjah. As I mentioned in my earlier correspondence, accommodation was provided to passengers including a group that was booked for a package tour to Dubai through a tour organiser. These passengers were mostly non-resident Indians (NRI) from the US. They created a lot of noise, demanded accommodation, put pressure on the airlines manager at the airport through their tour operator and succeeded in getting their right. I saw them departing from the airport in Sharjah to their hotel in Dubai on the hotel’s bus.
I suggest the management of Air Arabia check this fact before responding with a standard explanation.
Also as per Air Arabia’s policy, they provide accommodation to the passengers if the flight is delayed beyond 8 hours – as stated by their manager at the airport. This flight was delayed for more than 10 hours. Why did they not provide accommodation to other passengers, including me? I travelled overnight from my city to Ahmedabad to catch this flight and got no sleep or rest till we reached Sharjah at around 5pm.
This is a case of total mismanagement, poor customer service and discrimination. Air Arabia was aware of the delay as the flight had not even departed from Sharjah to Ahmedabad. They still insisted that all of us complete the immigration and security check and due to this we could not leave the airport even if we wished to arrange accommodation at our own cost. Hope the Air Arabia management will respond to these points.

Mr Raydan responds:
The group of 30 passengers that Mr Karia is referring to was booked by a tour operator. The hotel accommodation was provided and managed by the tour operator itself. We do understand the inconvenience that the delay has caused him, which is due to weather conditions. Mr Karia can always contact Air Arabia’s customer relations team for further inquiries and assistance on this matter.

Mr Karia responds:
Once again thank you for your [Gulf News] efforts to bring some response from the airlines. I was regularly interacting with Air Arabia’s airport manager for almost nine hours of this delay. I saw him booking hotel accommodation for this group by getting approval from the higher management. So I am not convinced with the airline’s claim that the tour operator arranged the accommodation.  As per the rules, if the flight is delayed for more than eight hours, airlines must arrange accommodation for all passengers. Air Arabia is still not commenting on why they did not implement this rule for certain passengers.  They mentioned that I can contact the customer relations team for further inquiries and assistance.  However, they did not bother to respond to my several e-mails on this matter including the e-mail I sent from Ahmedabad airport while waiting for the flight.

Editor’s note: The complaint was forwarded to the management of Air Arabia for further comments. However, despite repeated reminders, the management failed to respond.

If you have similar consumer complaints, send them to us at readers@gulfnews.com