Eleven hours on a grounded plane: Cathay apologises to passengers

Cathay Pacific apologised yesterday to more than 1000 passengers who sat through 16-hour flights only to wait for up to another 11 hours in snowbound planes at New York's main airport.

Marooned travellers criticised the airline's response to a storm that drove snow and gale force winds across the region from Sunday, closing airports including John F Kennedy International Airport where the passengers were stuck.

One said the "entire event (had) been mismanaged".
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Cathay said 1100 passengers "suffered" being trapped in its planes for between four and 11 hours as they sat grounded on the snow-covered tarmac "because gates were not available at the airport for passengers to disembark".

Angry passengers criticised the airline for a lack of communication during the incident, and even for letting planes leave Hong Kong given the blizzard conditions in New York.

"I think they knew when we took off in Hong Kong that the conditions were not good, but they decided to let the plane go," pastry chef Dominique Ansel told The Wall Street Journal.

"People are super angry but everybody's too exhausted," Ansel said, adding that "I hope Cathay will make up for this."

Passenger Mark Asten told the paper: "I think the entire event has been mismanaged... When bad things happen, you can go a long way with giving customers meaningful explanations, and they haven't met that challenge."

Cathay pledged a review to ensure passengers were not marooned in planes again. JFK and La Guardia Airport in New York City, as well as Newark International in New Jersey, were closed by the storm but reopened Monday.

The airline said service was returning to normal, with two of three Hong Kong-bound flights on their way to the Asian financial hub.

Anger is mounting among passengers stranded on airport tarmacs and in terminals as flight delays threatened to stretch into the weekend following the worst December snowstorm to hit New York City in six decades.

source | http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/eleven-hours-on-a-grounded-plane-cathay-apologises-to-passengers-20101230-19ao6.html