Qantas passengers angered over 21-hour flight delay on National Day

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Qantas passengers angered over 21-hour flight delay on National Day



SINGAPORE - Passengers on Qantas flight QF36, delayed from last evening, were finally able to depart Changi Airport on Monday (Aug 10) at 6.54pm, after a long wait, but another flight to Melbourne has been re-timed.

Passengers of Qantas Airways flight QF36 bound for Melbourne from Singapore on Sunday (Aug 9) evening were stranded overnight when their plane, which was on its way from Brisbane, failed to land.

Many had returned to the airport this morning, only to be told that their flight would not be leaving until later in the day.

Meanwhile, another flight to Melbourne scheduled to leave at 7.55pm on Monday evening appeared to have been re-timed, with a queue of confused passengers forming at the Qantas customer service desk.

Mr Adly Mohd Sham, 26, who had been booked on the flight with a friend, said they had arrived at the airport at 4pm to discover the flight was delayed. The customer service officer said nobody had explained to him why the delay had arisen, and that he would miss his transfer flight to Tasmania.

"So far we've had no emails or calls, nothing," he said.

Qantas has yet to respond to press inquiries on why Monday's flight was delayed. According to its website, the flight is now scheduled to depart on Tuesday (Aug 11) at 3pm.

A spokesman from Australia's flag carrier explained that the original flight arriving from Brisbane had to be diverted to the airport in Batam due to "congestion at Changi Airport as a result of the airport's closure for SG50 flyover celebrations".

The Straits Times understands that the plane had to re-fuel in Batam, but a lengthy delay arose when its flight crew was discovered to have exceeded their flight hours.

The plane was forced to remain there until a new crew could be flown over to man the plane, and only arrived in Singapore at 4.39am on Monday.

As a result, flights QF36 (scheduled to depart Singapore for Melbourne on Sunday at 7.55pm) and QF6 (scheduled for a 11.50pm departure on the same day) were both delayed.

QF6 only departed Singapore at 10.18am on Monday, while passengers of QF36 have to endure a 21-hour delay before their flight was to leave at 5.45pm on Monday.

QF36, however, will not be a direct flight to Melbourne this time, with passengers having to transit at Darwin.

While the Qantas spokesman said those affected were put up in hotels or at the airport lounge and meal vouchers were provided, disgruntled passengers have lashed out at what they perceived as a lack of clear communication from the airline.

Singaporean Eric Zhuo was one of the passengers who was supposed to be on board QF36 but was made to wait till 1am before being informed that he would have to spend the night in a hotel.

"This was the only update they gave us, until a letter was sent to my hotel at noon today telling us that our flight would only take off at 5.45pm," said Mr Zhuo, who is self-employed. "It's really irresponsible of Qantas - we were forced to rely on social media and the airline's website for updates instead.

"I expected more from a full-service airline like them. The only saving grace was that most of us took the news rather calmly and did not create a commotion."

Other passengers took to Twitter to voice their frustrations. User Shawn Taggart tweeted a photo of passengers sitting on the floor outside their boarding gate, while Rob Pickering wrote: "@Qantas you should have a good look at yourself over this QF36 issue. Terribly handled, no staff, no communication. Lots of people angry."


http://www.straitstimes.com/singapor...ay#xtor=CS1-10


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