Passengers stranded at Pudong
Print Edition
OVER 40 China Eastern Airlines passengers were stranded at Pudong International Airport yesterday, which, the airline said, was due to a change of aircraft.
The 48 passengers booked on Shanghai-Beijing Flight MU564 for 9am, were told they could not board the aircraft because there were no seats available.
One of the passengers said the China Eastern manager-on-duty offered 200 yuan (US$30) compensation for the stranded passengers, but on condition that they sign a statement stating they won’t file a legal complaint.
It only angered the passengers who refused to accept the deal.
There was suspicion that the airline had sold more seats than were actually available despite the fact that the airline’s official website showed that tickets were still available for the flight even before takeoff.
It is a common practice among airlines to overbook tickets in case of cancelation and no-shows at the airport.
But a press officer with China Eastern told Shanghai Daily that the airline had to replace the original aircraft due to bad weather and the new aircraft could not hold all the booked passengers.
According to flight information on Ctrip.com, the airline originally was scheduled to deploy an Airbus 330-300 but it was replaced with the smaller Airbus 330-200.
“It is impossible for us to oversell so many tickets for a single flight,” he added.
Thirty-six passengers were transferred by bus to Hongqiao International Airport and boarded another China Eastern flight to Beijing at 11am. The remaining passengers took a later flight to Beijing from Pudong airport.
The airline said it will hold compensation talks with them.
Zhang Qihuai, a civil aviation lawyer, told Shanghai Daily that the airline should take full responsibility for failing to fly passengers to their destinations and should compensate them.
He said the airline had no legal basis to ask passengers to sign documents “to give up their legal rights.”
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