Caos in questi giorni all'aeroporto di Bahrain

[skyrobbie]

Chaos at Bahrain airport as scores bumped off flights

by James Bennett on Monday, 17 December 2007 a.b.com

FLIGHT CHAOS: Passenger delays are being blamed on Gulf Air overbooking flights.Scores of passengers have been bumped off Gulf Air flights out of Bahrain over the last few days, leading to widespread disruption and accusations that the airline has been excessively overbooking during the busy holiday season.

The disruption began at the end of last week and continued on Sunday with passengers heading for the Indian subcontinent, UK and Europe facing continued delays, Bahrain’s Gulf Daily News reported on Monday.

The newspaper said Gulf Air was shuffling passengers on to alternative flights, laying on extra flights to some high-traffic destinations and even bringing in bigger aircraft in an effort to limit the problem.


However, the airline admitted it would be a few days before the situation was back to normal.

Al Fanar Travel general manager Suhaib Kidwai blamed Gulf Air for the chaos, claiming the airline had allowed excessive booking without checking to see how many people would actually be flying.

Kidwai said overbooking led to a "first come first serve" situation where many passengers ended up getting bumped off.

“When this happens every year, we assume the airline is taking some action. This is not happening,” he said, quoted Gulf Daily News.

However, the airline has dismissed accusations, claiming that passengers being bumped off flights was not unusual.

“One hundred people denied boarding every day when we have 60 flights departing is not a big number. This number every day is considered to be average," said Adnan Malek, Gulf Air’s acting head of corporate communications, quoted Gulf Daily News.

Malek said a glitch in the immigration computer systems at the King Fahad Causeway on Saturday had contributed significantly to the problem.

He said this resulted in more than 14 buses being delayed as a result and people who missed connecting flights being transferred to the next available aircraft, causing a knock-on effect throughout the network.

The extended 10-day Eid holiday, the Haj season and a shortage of aircraft were also contributing to the problem, Malek said.