Airline rightly blamed for passenger misery
When the story first emerged of the scandalous conditions aboard two Air Transat flights stranded on the tarmac at the Ottawa airport last summer, the question was: “How on earth could this happen?”
How could passengers be left with not enough food or drink for nearly five and six hours, respectively? Why were they not let off the airplane?
It was a tale that hit home with anyone who’s ever travelled by air, domestically or abroad.
On Thursday, months after the summer horror story, Canadian Transportation Agency answered some of these questions, in a well- deserved shellacking of Air Transat.
The agency said Transat staff weren’t properly aware of the rules when they didn’t de- plane passengers.
And it said staff failed to provide snacks or water to passengers, who were hot, dehydrated and scared. It took a 911 call from inside one plane for folks to get a draught of fresh air.
The airline contends it announced food and drink were available, but that no passengers took it up on the offer, a statement, the agency says — with the bureaucrat’s gift for understatement — is “questionable.”
Instead, there were leftovers when the planes eventually arrived at their final destination.
The report places the blame for passenger discomfort squarely on Air Transat. It even orders compensation for passengers’ out- of- pocket expenses.
Good. It’s a stark condemnation that we hope will lead to change.
“We reiterate our sincere apologies to our passengers who experienced a difficult situation,” said Air Transat president
Jean- François Lemay in a statement.
Real human beings were made miserable that night: the pregnant women who felt they weren’t cared for; the mother desperate for milk for her baby; the passengers sprayed by vomit when a sick child failed to make it to the bathroom.
Yet the aftermath of the incident focused more on public relations than on how people coped.
It just didn’t need to be that bad.
A lack of common sense, general ignorance and all- around brutal customer service — something frankly far too frequent today in all kinds of industries — were responsible.
We hope Air Transat staff will be up to snuff and prepared the next time a plane is diverted and has to sit on a tarmac somewhere. After all, Canada’s a land of inclement weather, so there will be a next time.
— Postmedia Network