For many, flying with their national flag carrier is a matter of pride. But, for Nepali passengers, there are high chances that it may turn into a frustrating ordeal.
Passengers, who were scheduled to fly from Mumbai to Kathmandu with Nepal’s flag carrier on Sunday, November 24, got the first hand experience of Nepal Airlines Corporation’s poor management.
Punam Singh, Chief Marketing Officer at MAW Enterprises, who was among the passengers, took to social media platform Facebook to express her frustration.
“I was stranded at the airport for hours after my flight was delayed without prior notice,” reads her post. “Despite being patient, we received no updates from the airline staff, who kept passing the responsibility between themselves and the handling team.”
Read: NAC Pilots’ Strike Leaves Passengers Stranded at TIA
What followed was a series of unprofessional mishandlings.
Passengers were informed of a flight cancellation only after prolonged waiting. As the flight was postponed for early morning the following day, the airlines arranged passengers the accommodations for the night. But, Singh told NBA that it was haphazard, with a lack of consideration for vulnerable groups such as senior citizens and children.
“Random hotels were assigned, ones I wouldn’t choose even if I had to pay myself,” she claimed.
Moreover, the NAC officials not only asked the passengers to take rides to hotels using private taxis, raising serious safety concerns for late-night commutes, they were asked to share rooms with strangers.
“It was inappropriate and unsafe,” added Singh, claiming that she was told that she could wait in the hotel lobby or arrange her transport back to the airport at her expense when she refused to stay in a shared room.
“How can this be acceptable for a national carrier?” she asks.
Highlighting a lack of accountability, passengers remarked on the dismissive attitude of the station manager, being rude and arrogant, shifting the blame while ignoring their legitimate concerns.
However, NAC Spokesperson Ramesh Poudel claimed that the passengers in such circumstances are kept at proper hotels, by ensuring their safety.
“We accommodate them in hotels with which we have signed agreements,” Poudel said. “Passengers belonging to the same flight can be kept in different hotels as we cannot get around 500 rooms in a single hotel.”
What led the passengers to one of the most unpleasant airport experiences takes NAC’s apathy for passengers’ concern to a whole new level.
The permanent pilots at NAC flying its wide and narrow body aircrafts have been at odds with the management over issues surrounding salary and benefits in recent months. They have reportedly been demanding their pay be raised in line with what the contract-based pilots get.
NAC currently employs four pilots on contract-basis, according to Poudel.
Informing that some permanent pilots have demanded to upgrade their salary and benefits, Poudel claimed that some of them have resorted to non-cooperation of late.
“Eight of the 43 permanent pilots have resorted to non-cooperation by asking for a sick or an emergency leave at the last moment,” Poudel told NBA. “The pilot’s strike affected three international flights – one on Saturday and two on Sunday.”
After being delayed for about five hours, the NAC flight from Kathmandu flew to Mumbai at 10 PM, and returned to Kathmandu in the morning the following day as the Tribhuvan International Airport remains closed from 10 PM to 8 AM, daily, for five months for upgradation.
Claiming that NAC has already submitted a file to address the pilots’ demands to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and it has been passed to the Ministry of Finance, Poudel added that the issue is being resolved in a positive way.
Passengers, meanwhile, question why the airline is not held accountable for such a terrible treatment towards its customers. “Why has no one accepted that the treatment given to passengers was against the aviation law?” Singh questioned.
