Flight cancellation, delays Malindo Air\\\'s hallmarks
Sunday, 19 October 2014
FE Report
'Not Just Low Cost' is the slogan that the Malaysia-based Malindo air, a budget airline, uses to lure passengers.
Of late it has been offering another item---suffering--- free of cost to its passengers.
Cancellation and long-delays of scheduled flights have become the hallmarks of the Malindo, a Malaysia and Indonesia joint venture.
Hundreds of passengers of international as well as domestic routes of the airliner are being subjected to untold sufferings almost everyday. Bangladeshi passengers using the carrier for traveling to Kuala Lumpur (KL) from Dhaka or the vice versa are priority targets of flight cancellation or delays.
There are instances where confirmed ticket holders were refused seats on the Malindo flights claiming that there was no room on the aircraft to accommodate more passengers! These passengers were forced to stay back for a day and take the flight next day.
What is more surprising is that the Malindo check-in staffs at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) resort to fraudulence to deny the confirmed ticket holders seats in scheduled flights. This scribe is a witness to a number of cases of cheating by the Malindo people at the KLIA2 on October 14 last.
The Malindo staff members at the Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka had fled their desks in the early hours of October 8 last to escape the wrath of passengers angered by sudden cancellation of the schedule flight to KL. However, the on-duty civil aviation officials had managed to get hold of the Malindo people and forced them to arrange food and lodging for the stranded passengers.
Knowledgeable sources said the Malindo does not have the required number of aircraft to conduct its operation in all the routes smoothly. In the event of withdrawal of an aircraft from service due to technical faults does affect its flight schedules.
Malindo, in fact, is no more a budget airline. A return-journey to KL from Dhaka used to cost Tk.21000 when the airliner had started its operation two years back. But the same now costs Tk. 30,000 despite the fact that its quality of service has deteriorated fast.
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