Flight delays happen all the time, and are hardly worth reporting on. And the same is probably true in this case, though at least the circumstances are interesting. A Scoot flight (they’re a low cost carrier based in Singapore) from Singapore to Perth was delayed by over 22 hours, and apparently the communication and handling of the situation was terrible. There were a variety of reasons for the delay, and the passengers even boarded and deplaned multiple times.
Via The Straits Times:
Dozens of Scoot passengers were up in arms after a flight from Singapore to Perth was delayed for more than 22 hours over the weekend.
“Scoot flight TZ 8 to Perth was originally scheduled to depart from Singapore at 1210 pm (Singapore time) on 20th June. It was delayed at Changi Airport due to a technical issue and we regret the delay has inconvenienced our guests,” a Scoot spokesman said.
The flight was re-scheduled to 9.50am on Sunday morning, according to Scoot’s Facebook page. It eventually took off at 10.42am on Sunday.
In an email sent to Scoot seen by The Straits Times, one passenger claimed that the flight was “delayed six times with different reasons”. One of the reasons given, he added, was that the plane’s tyre was ‘worn out’.
There seemed to be a near riot in the gate area, as frustrated passengers were unhappy with the way Scoot handled the situation. The following videos of the gate area were posted on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK65PgFOI2E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3E9JyNY5m8
Scoot’s handling of the situation does indeed seems to be abysmal:
- Delays happen, so I wouldn’t blame Scoot for that in and of itself, as safety is the always the top priority; unfortunately the way they handled the delay is the problem
- Singapore is the airline’s hub, so to only have a single agent who claims to be a contract worker at the gate is completely unacceptable and a slap in the face to frustrated passengers, given the scope of the delay (though I’m guessing Scoot did that intentionally)
- It seems like the delay was clearly within Scoot’s control, in which case they should also be obligated to provide hotels for passengers
Shame on Scoot for the way they handled this. At the same time, the videos posted on YouTube are sort of cringeworthy, especially of the guy/self proclaimed social media expert leading the charge. 😉
I’m not sure how I would have handled the situation, personally. On one hand yelling at the contract worker won’t get you anywhere, though at the same time it’s frustrating that the passengers couldn’t get an actual Scoot supervisor to the gate, who would have been empowered to take care of passengers.
A messy situation all around, clearly…
What do you make of this Scoot delay and the videos of the passengers?
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