Flight Delays and Problems

I had a meeting last Monday in Kuala Terengganu (KT) at the place where I do facilitating stints on a fortnightly basis. The meeting was to review our observations and the feedback we get on the programme and find ways to improve.

My flight to KT on Monday was uneventful. There was a delay of about half an hour both ways. I have got so used to these delays that it is always factored in into my programmes. Even those awaiting my arrival in KT have set aside and factored in the delay times!! I think there is lately something not right with the attitudes of the airline staff. Delay appears to happen every day and for almost every flight!! 10 mins late is still a delay and sometimes the delay can stretch over hours. I have yet to get a flight out to KT or return to KL that is spot on time!! I also very often hear announcements of gate changes for certain flights and the gate changes can be from one end of the building to the other end. And these gate changes have been very frequent.

The meeting in KT was agreed upon at a brief discussion we had when I was facilitating a programme in KT last week. On returning to KL Friday morning after that facilitating stint I thought it was convenient to make bookings for my Monday KT trip at the airline counter at the airport. The counter staff at the airport told me that all flights to KT on Monday were full. I was stumped!! I thought to myself I will have to try and book a seat on the budget airline or I will have to travel by bus to KT or make some other alternative transport arrangements. As soon as I got home I got online and was able to make bookings for the Monday morning flight to KT and the late evening return to KL from KT. Wowwww…… I thought to myself….. the counter staff was trying to pull a fast one on me???? On Saturday a colleague who was also required to attend the meeting in KT on Monday called and said he too had the same problem at the airline counter at the airport on Friday and asked how I was going to KT and thought we should go together and drive in one car to KT. I suggested he tries purchasing the airline tickets on-line like I did. He did and ‘hey presto’ he was successful!! So, how come all the flights to and from KT for Monday was full at the counter on Friday?

There were complains in the newspapers these few days of various customer dissatisfaction with the airline with some suggesting staff sabotage as a reason. The airline company MD himself replied in the papers that there is no such sabotage but that the problems were technical in nature! Oh come onnnnnnn!! Mr MD. Who do you take us for …… fools?

We observed a lot of staff’s mishandling. I can give many examples of my observations on instances of mishandling by staff apart from all those that I mentioned above. For example, gate openings at the departure lounges are usually opened an hour or more before the scheduled flight time but many were opened less than half an hour before the flight!! One two hours delayed flight where passengers had to disembark because of a technical problem, was delayed further after passengers had reboarded due to punctured tyres? Couldn’t the puncture be attended to during the two hours of attending to the ‘technical’ problem? Or did they purposely ‘miss’ the puncture in their routine checks. I always see the co pilot going around the aircraft checking it before the flight. Did he also purposely miss the puncture? And …… when there is a technical problem, there will be many people around the aircraft and only a few working……. A case of more supervisors than workers?? How very efficient!! The airline is trying its best to cut cost and increase profits but at whose expense? So, Mr MD, please go down to the field and the shop floor. See for yourself what is going on for the sake of your customers.

The budget airline, being low cost, does not provide the same creature comfort that the other airline provides. There are no aerobridges, and passengers have to walk quite a distance to board the aircraft. If not for the disadvantage of needing a walking stick to walk I would opt for the budget airline to fly to KT as it appears that this airline is a lot more efficient than the above airline I mentioned. However the flight times do not quite suit my travel schedules. Hmmmmm, dilemma dilemma……

MKI Ramblings Unlimited,
Petaling Jaya