Mangalore, Oct 21: Around 180 Air India Express passengers from Mangalore and Kerala who had stranded at Saudi Arabia's Dammam International Airport, following abrupt cancellation of an aircraft on Saturday, finally reached their destinations on Tuesday morning.
Angry passengers have complained of having a harrowing time at the Dammam Airport without proper facilities as the India's national carrier had failed to inform the passengers as of when the flight would take off.
œWe can understand that the cancellation of flight was unavoidable as the safety of passengers is very important. But it is the duty of airlines to inform the passengers in advance and treat them with dignity, said Abdul Razzak, one of the Mangalorean passengers.
Another passenger said that after the abrupt cancellation of the flight due to a major technical glitch, the passengers were left in lurch as there was no one to listen to their woes for hours.
œWe had to starve without food and water at the Airport. Finally officials took us to Golden Tulip hotel at 1.30 a.m. on Sunday and we spent next 24 hours in the same hotel. On Monday at 1.30 a.m. they took us to Airport and again made us to wait until 6 a.m., when an official came to us and told the flight was again rescheduled to night. Once again we had to return to the hotel, he said.
œMy daughter-in-law and her two small kids were among the stranded passengers in Dammam. They had to face severe difficulties thanks to carelessness of airline authorities, said B A Mohammad Ali, a Mangalorean. œThey were twice taken to the Airport from the hotel and left unattended for a long time, he added.
Sameera (name changed), another Mangaloren passenger, said that she and her two small kids a two-and-a-half-year-old boy and an eleven-month-old baby had to undergo inexplicable difficulties for two days. œMy kids were starving and there was no food and water for them in my small vanity bag. I never imagined such a situation, she lamented.
Airlines Warned
Iqbal Kana, our correspondent in Dammam, said that annoyed by the indifference of Air India Express officials, the authorities at Dammam International Airport issued a warning on Monday and asked them to solve the problems of passengers immediately.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Health and Family Welfare Minister said that Air India Express was warned for troubling its Dammam-Mangalore passengers. œThere are several complaints against the Air India Express from its regular passengers these years. But the airlines failed to learn the lesson, he lamented.
Also Read: Mangalore-bound passengers stranded at Dammam as AIE flight delayed by 2 days
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