We thought that chronically problem–plagued Lion Air might be on course towards cleaning up its act after the airline finally earned its safety certification from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) recently. But frankly, we’re not sure how Lion could have ever earned its IATA certification when the airline’s managemenet still clearly has no idea what it’s doing in regards to logistics or customer service.
Yesterday, a spate of delayed Lion Air flights in airports across Java – including Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Surabaya’s Juanda Airport and Yogyakarta’s Adisucipto Airport – left thousands of passengers angry and upset. Most flights were delayed over 4 hours and, at least in the case of Yogyakarta, some were rescheduled for early this morning.
One passenger, Suhamdih, who was planning on flying to Jakarta from Yogyakarta yesterday, said that over 500 passengers had been stranded at Adisucipto on Sunday night due to delayed flights.
“According to the schedule the flight to Jakarta should have been at 8pm, but it was delayed for 5 hours so it was an early Monday departure,” Suhamdih told Republika via SMS today.
He added, that, in addition to the flight to Jakarta, Lion flights to Banjarmasin and Denpasar had also been delayed.
The worse part, Suhamdi said, is that Lion Air did not give passengers any definite information, saying that it was only after being pressed by angry passengers did Lion service staff acknowledge there were technical difficulties and give them each Rp 300,000 for compensation.
The above video shows passengers in Juanda Airport in Surabaya also angrily yelling at Lion Air staff and security after their flight had already been delayed for over 4 hours.
Lion Air has not yet released any official explanation for all of yesterday’s delays.
It was almost one year ago that Lion Air experiences a huge series of epic delays that left thousands of passengers stranded for up to 3 days.
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