XIAMEN Airlines agreed Wednesday to compensate about 90 passengers for the nearly 13-hour delay of a flight from Shenzhen to Xiamen, and some of the passengers stayed on the plane for an additional seven hours after it landed to demand more money.
The plane was scheduled to take off from Shenzhen International Airport at 1:35 p.m. Tuesday, but didn’t get off the ground until 2:22 a.m. Wednesday. Xiamen Airlines attributed the delay to bad weather conditions, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported Thursday.
When the plane arrived in Xiamen at 3:15 a.m. Wednesday, about 70 passengers accepted the airline’s initial offer of 200 yuan (US$32) in compensation and then left.
However, 25 other passengers accused the airline of lacking sincerity in its apology and stayed on the grounded plane in Xiamen for seven more hours, demanding more compensation. The airline then agreed to give each of those passengers either a free ticket or 400 yuan.
That offer only satisfied 14 of the 25 determined travelers. The remaining 11 said the delay had caused them heavy financial losses because of missed hotel reservations and other reasons.
The airline finally offered 500 yuan and a free ticket valid for one year to each of the final 11 passengers, the paper said.
Some passengers said that besides weather conditions, inefficient operations by the airline also should be blamed for the delay. Even when the weather cleared, passengers said, the flight didn’t take off immediately, for which the airline gave different explanations.
Airlines are required to compensate passengers 300 yuan in cash or a ticket discount worth at least 450 yuan for a flight delay longer than eight hours.
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