Holidaymakers made to run around at airport for 23 hours

Dubai: Frustrated holidaymakers endured "a horrendous night" at Dubai International Airport when their flight was delayed for almost 23 hours.

Cyprus Airways Flight CY393 from Dubai to Larnaca via Bahrain was scheduled to depart at 12am on July 6 but after encountering several problems it was scheduled to take off at 10.30pm yesterday evening.

Sixty-two passengers, including 60-year-old Barbara Rogers, were left stranded before eventually being put up in hotel accommodation.

Rogers, originally from The Wirral in England, told Gulf News she and her friend had been kept "guessing for hours because staff refused to be honest about the situation".

"It has been an absolute nightmare and tensions have been running very high. We were given very little explanation about what was going on and even trying to get a cup of coffee has been difficult. The staff told us to go and eat at fast food restaurants if we wanted any food or drink. Our requests for blankets were also ignored despite the fact it got very cold in the departure lounge," Rogers said.

"We were moved around so many different departure gates because of the lack of communication. At 7.30am [yesterday morning] we boarded a bus that was supposedly meant to take us to the aircraft. But we ended up driving around the airport for about 45 minutes before being dropped off in the arrivals lounge. The whole situation has been totally bewildering," she added.

The passengers were told the delay was due to a technical fault on the aircraft. By the time the problem was fixed the crew had worked longer than airline regulations allow so the passengers were placed in a hotel.

Hussain C.K., Manager of the Gulf Region for Cyprus Airways, said he felt the airline had done a "fair job" catering for its passengers in difficult circumstances.

He said: "The problem arose from a faulty spare part on the aircraft that took our engineering team around five hours to replace. The plane was then ready to depart but due to crew limitation - recommended work periods set by the Civil Aviation Authority - it was against industry regulations for the airline staff to work any longer.

"We provided dinner for every passenger - 45 people took the airline up on its offer - and we put everyone up in a five star hotel, either the Metropolitan Palace or the Renaissance. We also provided breakfast, lunch and transport to and from the hotel.

"The passengers had to move gates on a few occasions because the aircraft was parked at bridge number eight but had to be taken to the remote bay for repair work. That was a decision taken by the airport and there is very little we could have done about that.

"This has been an unfortunate situation but Cyprus Airways has been operating in Dubai for 25 years now and we had not experienced a single fault for over four years until yesterday."

The staff told us to go and eat at fast food restaurants if we wanted any food or drink. Our requests for blankets were also ignored ... ."