Editorial
Airline staff's errant behaviour
Passengers deserve more courtesy
It seems that sometimes airline staff forget that they are paid to serve the passengers. And sometimes their imperious attitude makes them forget that it is their responsibility to ensure that all those that have preferred to fly their airline have a hassle free and safe journey from the time they check in. It doesn't happen all the time. Recently, the unfortunate victims of the fault of a staff of Eithad Airlines in Abu Dhabi airport were a mother and daughter.
The account of the incident, as it has appeared in this newspaper, is that two women expatriate Bangladeshis, flying from Dhaka to Toronto, were prevented from their onward journey since the boarding pass of one of them was not stamped, and their mistake was to ask the person at the boarding counter to have it stamped since they had been already standing in the queue for an hour and would miss their turn if they were to go back to the check-in counter, which could be at a considerable distance in airports as humongous as Abu Dhabi. And in any case, as they reasoned, the fault was that of the staff who failed to ensure that the boarding passes were stamped.
Unfortunately, not only could these two passengers not make it to their final destination, they were forced to return to Bangladesh, but not before being subjected to undeserved and despicably high-handed treatment from the airline staff. Reportedly, they were not even allowed to call their embassy initially. This incident is fairly representative of the situation in many airports and of many airlines, but those don't get reported mostly.
It would do well for the said airline, and indeed all airlines, to remember that they are not doing the passengers any favour. They operate because of them and not in spite of them. And it is for some of the staff of the airlines to correct their attitude, not otherwise.
We feel that the matter should be thoroughly investigated and the said passengers duly compensated for the agony they were made to undergo.
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