BY: Zubaidah Nazeer, with additional reporting from Charissa Yong, newsroom intern
It might be unavoidable. Bad weather and technical problems might delay budget flights.
But passengers who have to pay for higher fuel surcharges do not take long delays kindly.
Within the span of a week, at least two budget airlines left passengers stranded with delays of more than 15 hours.
But major budget airlines operating from Singapore told The New Paper that their punctuality rates remain high and their cancellation rates are low.
Tiger Airways, whose flight from Bangkok to Singapore was delayed on 15 Jun for 33 hours, said its punctuality average was over 85 per cent last year.
Statistics on its website show this figure stands at 79 per cent in May. Its spokesman said the airline had a completion rate of 99.95 per cent, cancelling only six out of 12,000 flights.
Of the six, two return flights were due to airport closures in Phuket, Thailand, and one return flight was due to a typhoon.
An AirAsia spokesman - who also cited similar reasons, such as airport closure and bad weather, for delays - said its on-time departure rates for last month is 89 per cent.
Jetstar Asia, and its sister budget carrier Valuair, declined to furnish statistics.
In March, The Business Times reported that these rates are better than the 78.9 per cent average for European-based airlines, 64 per cent for US-based carriers and 77 per cent for carriers operating from Australia.
So how can passengers be mollified when delays occur?
For AirAsia, it announced on 16 Jun that passengers on flights that are delayed for more than three hours will get a RM200 ($84) AirAsia voucher.
Ms Tan Khai Hua, public relations manager of Jetstar Asia/Valuair, also cited similar offers of "meals and drinks, as well as service recovery vouchers".
However, all three budget carriers are unable to refund fares. There is a no-refund policy for tickets sold - especially if there is a flight provided for passengers.
Instead, Ms Tan said: "We recommend that our passengers buy travel insurance."
Handling Passengers
Are budget airlines savvy in handling flight delays?
Sales engineer Glenn Tan, 29, who was on the Tiger Airways flight, said: "It was not about the delays; passengers would rather wait for the sake of safety. But there should have been a back-up plan."
There should be a protocol that the airline has to follow in the event of a delay, to guide passengers on what to do, instead of not knowing the plan of action, he said.
Mr Lam K C, 25, who was also on the same flight, added that there should have been a Tiger Airways official to coordinate and manage the situation, not just ground handlers contracted to the airline.
He said: "Sure, it's budget and you get what you pay for. But the airline should have let their officers handle the passengers."
Banker David Leach, 30, a passenger on the delayed Valuair flight, said passengers would be irked if they felt they were dealing with a nameless and faceless organisation.
Even when there is a letter of apology, he added, it may be unsigned and fail to explain what is going on and what will be done.
Mr Leach said: "I would like budget airlines to state clearly on their websites what their action plan is like when a flight is delayed."
He believes this will help manage passenger expectations. But budget airlines say they do take this into consideration.
In the Tiger Airways and Valuair incidents, an extra flight was provided.
Tiger Airways' spokesman said it put the passengers up in a hotel and provided them with meals. The airline also sent a memo to passengers' hotel rooms to apologise for the delay.
Its spokesman added: "We will continue to work with our contracted ground handling agents to improve communications for such incidents."
This article was first published in The New Paper on June 30, 2008.
