Snowfall causes flight delays, but poor service adds to disruption
Al Guo 03 November 2009
Outside the snow was falling, but inside Beijing’s Capital International Airport temperatures rose.
Snowstorms since Sunday stranded tens of thousands of air travellers. Flights were repeatedly delayed and cancelled, and passengers were stranded for hours at a time on planes or inside terminals with little or no information about when they would finally take off.
As the airport returned to normal yesterday, questions were being asked over the communication breakdown between aviation authorities and municipal weather gurus who artificially induced the snowfall. And the state-owned airlines taking the rap for some of the worst delays came in for heavy criticism for poor service.
Gu Li, one of the mainland’s top “go” chess players, was one of the victims. It took him more than 18 hours to travel from Beijing to Shanghai, leaving him with just a couple of hours to rest before competing against an equally exhausted Kong Jie , whose flight had been delayed for almost 10 hours.
Gu arrived at the airport at 7am on Sunday for an 11am flight to Shanghai and was told to board another flight at about 1pm. If that flight had left on schedule, Gu would have made it to the pre-match press conference at 4pm. But after sitting on the plane for five hours, an exhausted Gu was told to get off and transfer to another one. He sat there for another two hours without any explanation about why it was not taking off, according to a report in the Titan Sports newspaper.
After repeatedly telling airport employees the importance of the “go” match in Shanghai, Gu was placed on a third plane to Shanghai which took off an hour later.
But after arriving in Shanghai, he found that his baggage - including his competition clothes - had not travelled with him. When the match finally started yesterday afternoon, Gu was still wearing the clothes he had flown in. He lost his match.
Information provided by flight-information website feeyo.com showed 523 flights had been delayed or cancelled at Beijing airport by midnight on Sunday. Flights gradually returned to normal yesterday under a clear sky.
An elderly couple travelling from Beijing to Guangzhou on Air China spent the whole of Sunday at the airport. They arrived at 9am for an 11am flight, and were moved on and off planes until they were told to go to a nearby hotel at 2am. They left Beijing yesterday afternoon at about 4pm - after a delay of almost 30 hours.
At the airport there was little information available from airport authorities and airline ground crew or flight attendants. Spokesmen for the airport and Air China could not be reached for comment yesterday, but in public statements, both companies referred to the unexpected snowfall on Sunday.
This exposed a lack of communication between aviation and meteorological authorities. A Xinhua report said the snowfall had been partially induced on Saturday when hundreds of snow-making rockets had been fired into the sky.
Many passengers complained Air China had done next to nothing to inform passengers about flight delays. Air China, the mainland’s Beijing-based flagship airline, has a phone hotline that was jammed on Sunday, while its website provides no updates on the status of flights.
Hao Jinsong, a Beijing lawyer, said state-owned airlines should be ashamed of the delays and chaos at the airport. “There is no competition [in the industry], so they don’t care if they lose customers or not,” Hao said. “If you don’t fill their seats, someone else will because there are so few options out there.”
Liu Weimin, professor of the Civil Aviation Management Institute of China, said aviation law favoured airlines in cases of service disputes caused by extreme weather.
“Airlines were not obliged to provide free food or lodging to passengers if problems are caused by severe weather conditions,” he said.
But because they were in the service industry, Liu said airlines should not look for loopholes. “The lifeline of airlines is service,” Liu said. “If you fail to serve people with your heart, there is no doubt customers will give you up when other options emerge.”
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Officials blamed for chaos at Beijing airport
Snowfall causes flight delays, but poor service adds to disruption
Al Guo
03 November 2009
Outside the snow was falling, but inside Beijing’s Capital International Airport temperatures rose.
Snowstorms since Sunday stranded tens of thousands of air travellers. Flights were repeatedly delayed and cancelled, and passengers were stranded for hours at a time on planes or inside terminals with little or no information about when they would finally take off.
As the airport returned to normal yesterday, questions were being asked over the communication breakdown between aviation authorities and municipal weather gurus who artificially induced the snowfall. And the state-owned airlines taking the rap for some of the worst delays came in for heavy criticism for poor service.
Gu Li, one of the mainland’s top “go” chess players, was one of the victims. It took him more than 18 hours to travel from Beijing to Shanghai, leaving him with just a couple of hours to rest before competing against an equally exhausted Kong Jie , whose flight had been delayed for almost 10 hours.
Gu arrived at the airport at 7am on Sunday for an 11am flight to Shanghai and was told to board another flight at about 1pm. If that flight had left on schedule, Gu would have made it to the pre-match press conference at 4pm. But after sitting on the plane for five hours, an exhausted Gu was told to get off and transfer to another one. He sat there for another two hours without any explanation about why it was not taking off, according to a report in the Titan Sports newspaper.
After repeatedly telling airport employees the importance of the “go” match in Shanghai, Gu was placed on a third plane to Shanghai which took off an hour later.
But after arriving in Shanghai, he found that his baggage - including his competition clothes - had not travelled with him. When the match finally started yesterday afternoon, Gu was still wearing the clothes he had flown in. He lost his match.
Information provided by flight-information website feeyo.com showed 523 flights had been delayed or cancelled at Beijing airport by midnight on Sunday. Flights gradually returned to normal yesterday under a clear sky.
An elderly couple travelling from Beijing to Guangzhou on Air China spent the whole of Sunday at the airport. They arrived at 9am for an 11am flight, and were moved on and off planes until they were told to go to a nearby hotel at 2am. They left Beijing yesterday afternoon at about 4pm - after a delay of almost 30 hours.
At the airport there was little information available from airport authorities and airline ground crew or flight attendants. Spokesmen for the airport and Air China could not be reached for comment yesterday, but in public statements, both companies referred to the unexpected snowfall on Sunday.
This exposed a lack of communication between aviation and meteorological authorities. A Xinhua report said the snowfall had been partially induced on Saturday when hundreds of snow-making rockets had been fired into the sky.
Many passengers complained Air China had done next to nothing to inform passengers about flight delays. Air China, the mainland’s Beijing-based flagship airline, has a phone hotline that was jammed on Sunday, while its website provides no updates on the status of flights.
Hao Jinsong, a Beijing lawyer, said state-owned airlines should be ashamed of the delays and chaos at the airport. “There is no competition [in the industry], so they don’t care if they lose customers or not,” Hao said. “If you don’t fill their seats, someone else will because there are so few options out there.”
Liu Weimin, professor of the Civil Aviation Management Institute of China, said aviation law favoured airlines in cases of service disputes caused by extreme weather.
“Airlines were not obliged to provide free food or lodging to passengers if problems are caused by severe weather conditions,” he said.
But because they were in the service industry, Liu said airlines should not look for loopholes. “The lifeline of airlines is service,” Liu said. “If you fail to serve people with your heart, there is no doubt customers will give you up when other options emerge.”
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