European snowstorm causes anguish for travellers
700 Pakistani passengers stranded at UK airports for days due to harsh weather conditions.
KARACHI:
The woes of Pakistani air travelers have not ended as international flights have continued to be cancelled owing to harsh weather conditions in some parts of Europe.
A record amount of snowfall had hit Northern Europe and brought air transport to a near standstill.
Talking to The Express Tribune, Mohsin Kidwai, a Pakistani student in London, informed that a lot of Pakistanis are still facing problems at UK airports. “A lot of Pakistanis have been stranded at British airports for more than two days,” he added. He said that he was coming to Pakistan for a month’s vacation but will now lose at least five days from his vacation due to this delay.
Kidwai is now staying at his friend’s home after his Emirates flight was cancelled on December 18 and he was stranded at London’s Heathrow airport. He will now be arriving on December 22 but he says that Heathrow is not fully operational yet.
Two Europe-bound PIA flights were cancelled on Monday and Tuesday each, said PIA’s spokesperson, Mashhood Tajwar. Earlier, two PIA flights had reached United Kingdom after being stranded at airports in Germany due to the snow.
Replying to a question, Tajwar said that PIA has taken all possible steps to reduce the sufferings of passengers during this calamity. However, Pakistani passengers travelling from PIA have said that they have faced problems at airports in Germany when the London-bound flights were diverted to these airports.
A PIA flight, PK-758, will leave Stansted, a UK airport near London, at 9pm on Tuesday according to British Standard Time and it is hoped that the flight will reach Pakistan safely, he added.
Rana Abdul Ghafoor Khan, the chairman of Travel Agents Association of Pakistan (TAAP), said that at least 700 passengers have been affected by this whole episode, which has also adversely affected travel agents in Pakistan. National and international airlines have charged more due to the cancelation of flights between Pakistan and Europe, he said.
However, PIA has officially denied that it charged extra money on account of the delay or cancelation of flights. “PIA wants to help its customers and it has not charged extra money,” said Tajwar.
The world’s busiest international airport, Heathrow only operated limited flights on Monday as one of its two runways was open. Many of the affected European airports advised their passengers not to travel to airports without confirming their flights. The number of stranded air passengers has reached over a million as Europe is trying to cope with the highest recorded snowfall in recent European history, according to the international media.
Operations at other airports in the UK were also affected and were far from being on schedule.
Meanwhile airports in Norway, France and Germany have also been hit hard. Airports that are partially open have warned of delays lasting for hours in days to come as more snowfall is forecast all over Northern Europe.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 22nd, 2010.
The woes of Pakistani air travelers have not ended as international flights have continued to be cancelled owing to harsh weather conditions in some parts of Europe.
A record amount of snowfall had hit Northern Europe and brought air transport to a near standstill.
Talking to The Express Tribune, Mohsin Kidwai, a Pakistani student in London, informed that a lot of Pakistanis are still facing problems at UK airports. “A lot of Pakistanis have been stranded at British airports for more than two days,” he added. He said that he was coming to Pakistan for a month’s vacation but will now lose at least five days from his vacation due to this delay.
Kidwai is now staying at his friend’s home after his Emirates flight was cancelled on December 18 and he was stranded at London’s Heathrow airport. He will now be arriving on December 22 but he says that Heathrow is not fully operational yet.
Two Europe-bound PIA flights were cancelled on Monday and Tuesday each, said PIA’s spokesperson, Mashhood Tajwar. Earlier, two PIA flights had reached United Kingdom after being stranded at airports in Germany due to the snow.
Replying to a question, Tajwar said that PIA has taken all possible steps to reduce the sufferings of passengers during this calamity. However, Pakistani passengers travelling from PIA have said that they have faced problems at airports in Germany when the London-bound flights were diverted to these airports.
A PIA flight, PK-758, will leave Stansted, a UK airport near London, at 9pm on Tuesday according to British Standard Time and it is hoped that the flight will reach Pakistan safely, he added.
Rana Abdul Ghafoor Khan, the chairman of Travel Agents Association of Pakistan (TAAP), said that at least 700 passengers have been affected by this whole episode, which has also adversely affected travel agents in Pakistan. National and international airlines have charged more due to the cancelation of flights between Pakistan and Europe, he said.
However, PIA has officially denied that it charged extra money on account of the delay or cancelation of flights. “PIA wants to help its customers and it has not charged extra money,” said Tajwar.
The world’s busiest international airport, Heathrow only operated limited flights on Monday as one of its two runways was open. Many of the affected European airports advised their passengers not to travel to airports without confirming their flights. The number of stranded air passengers has reached over a million as Europe is trying to cope with the highest recorded snowfall in recent European history, according to the international media.
Operations at other airports in the UK were also affected and were far from being on schedule.
Meanwhile airports in Norway, France and Germany have also been hit hard. Airports that are partially open have warned of delays lasting for hours in days to come as more snowfall is forecast all over Northern Europe.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 22nd, 2010.