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When four into two won’t go, MAS has a problem
KUALA LUMPUR – Is The Grumpy Traveller alone is believing that air services across the region are creaking at the seams, unable to cope with the explosion of extra flights, many by the low cost carriers.
Air and ground services appear to be stretched to breaking point, leading to delays and frustrated travellers.
The Grumpy Traveller’s recent flights have been dogged by delays, accompanied by the ususal litany of excuses: delayed incoming aircraft, missing passengers, air traffic bottlenecks etc but nothing quite beats the 55-minute delay to Malaysia Airlines flight 124 from KL to Perth last week.
Twenty minutes after the scheduled take-off time it was clear that something was wrong. The pilot then owned up: There were too many passengers on board for available seats and two passengers would be off-loaded, he said.
“And there will be a further delay while we find their luggage and offload that, too.”
Now, The Grumpy Traveller is no expert in ticketing procedures at KLIA, but surely MAS staff must have realised that they had doubled up on two seats before those passengers were allowed to board.
Or did they expect two passengers magically to disappear between check-in counter and departure gate?
Ian Jarrett
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