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Passengers irate after two days of Lion Air delays
Delayed flights: An announcement board shows Lion Air's flight schedule at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Thursday while passengers gather in front of the airlineâs ticket-sales counter
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Delayed flights: An announcement board shows Lion Air's flight schedule at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Thursday while passengers gather in front of the airlineâs ticket-sales counter. Lion Air's flights departing from the airport in Cengkareng, Banten, have been experiencing a string of delays since Wednesday afternoon. (JP/AWO) (JP/AWO)
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span class="inline inline-left">Delayed flights: An announcement board shows Lion Air's flight schedule at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Thursday while passengers gather in front of the airline's ticket-sales counter. Lion Air's flights departing from the airport in Cengkareng, Banten, have been experiencing a string of delays since Wednesday afternoon. (JP/AWO)
Hundreds of Lion Air passengers have directed their anger toward the low- cost carrier for numerous flight delays that have occurred since Wednesday, in the midst of the Chinese New Year holiday.
A majority of the airline's flights from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport have been hit with delays since Wednesday evening, with most of them serving crucial routes, including those to Denpasar, Batam, Kupang, Jambi and Medan, among others.
The cause for the delays however, has not been revealed by the airline and delays continued into Thursday afternoon.
Irate passengers who attempted to lodge complaints to Lion Air counters at the airport found them unattended.
'[The airline's workers] are not taking responsibility. They are making is wait until God knows when [...] They haven't provided food for the stranded passengers either. This is shabby service,' said Wisnu, an officer with the Riau Islands Police, on Wednesday night as quoted by Antara news agency, who was a passenger on a Batam-bound Lion Air flight.
As the delays continued into Thursday afternoon, stranded passengers frustrated at the airline's service expressed their anger by storming the Lion Air duty manager's office at Soekarno-Hatta.
'The duty manager's office is empty, there's no one there and the irate passengers have taken to turning over the tables in the office out of frustration because there still hasn't been any announcements made by the airline up to now,' Lion passenger Asiwardi Gandhi said on Thursday as quoted by tribunnews.com.
Lion Air has yet to make an official announcement regarding the two-day delays and Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan has reportedly called the airline's management to take responsibility for the debacle.
Meanwhile, passengers are being told to confirm and recheck their flight schedules with the airline. State-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura II said that its notice was made to ease the volume of passengers that are piling up at Soekarno-Hatta's terminals 1 A and B.
Angkasa Pura II president director Budi Karya Sumadi said the operator was coordinating to ease the problem, he said as quoted by tempo.co.
Budi also asked that affected passengers wait for further information from the airlines or the airport operator. (dyl/nvn)(++++)
