Scores of passengers were left fuming at the Pudong International Airport after a Shanghai-KL flight got cancelled without their knowledge.
To make matters worse, their rescheduled flight was one that was going to take off 50 hours later—a wait of more than two full days.
No warning
According to a post on X (formerly Twitter), it showed a photo of an email notification being sent to one of the passengers of the affected flight.
In it, it stated that the flight, which was scheduled to leave on May 11 at 2:35am, was rescheduled due to “operational reasons”.
As a result, passengers on the affected flight will be placed on a new one which will depart at 5am on May 13.
A post on Douyin shed further light on the debacle, with the OP claiming that passengers were originally informed of an hour-long delay to the flight that was supposed to depart at 1:35am.
But to their surprise, they were only informed of the new flight schedule after waiting for an hour.
Another Douyin user expressed disgruntlement over the surprise announcement, writing: “No notification of the delay. In the end, we couldn’t fly. Couldn’t even recover the costs incurred from our itinerary.”
In the same X post, it showed a clip of passengers gathering at the boarding gate while yelling “compensation” angrily in Mandarin.
Although airport ground staff tried to calm the situation by offering various alternatives such as helping them to reschedule their flights, it did little to soothe the passengers’ frustration.
Airline apologises
In response to Mothership’s enquiries, the airline confirmed the flight’s cancellation, saying it was due to “an unforeseen operational issue that required the aircraft to remain safely on the ground for further checks”.
It also said an alternative plan had been activated as part of the service recovery, and all affected passengers are currently being accommodated on the earliest available services to KL.
The airline added that refreshments and available accommodation were provided to passengers while its ground staff continue to assist in booking the next available flights.
Its general manager also apologised for the incident and thanked passengers for their “patience and understanding”.
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