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| Passengers of Jeju Air demand that the carrier operate more flights after a massive number of flight cancellations followed heavy snowfall at Jeju International Airport, Monday. / Yonhap |
By Chung Ah-young
Low-cost carriers (LCC) are under fire for their poor handling of passengers stranded at Jeju International Airport when flights were cancelled because of heavy snowfall and strong winds.
As of Tuesday, 76,000 out of more than 90,000 travelers stranded at the airport have departed after more than 40 hours of suspended operations, but thousands of passengers on budget carriers have continued struggling to book flights home.
Budget carriers such as Jeju Air, Jin Air, Air Busan, Eastar Jet and T'way Air offered tickets on a first-come-first-served basis when flights resumed on Monday ― rather than by the original order of bookings on cancelled flights.
Passengers were forced to rebook tickets as quickly as possible, with most having have stayed at the terminal since Saturday to get the tickets.
On the contrary, full-service carriers such as Korean Air and Asiana Airlines rebooked tickets for passengers on the basis of the original order, as well as re-accommodated stranded passengers whose flights were canceled.
However, the local LCCs were not equipped for such contingencies.
Some carriers did not even offer tickets to passengers who were briefly absent at the counters, despite having a waiting number ticket.
"I waited for more than 10 hours but I received the 2,000th waiting ticket. Should I stay here without rest until I am called by the company to get my ticket?" a passenger wrote on the Internet.
LCC passengers also complained about the lack of notice for flight changes and lack of access to customer services at the airport during the suspended operations from Saturday to Monday morning.
Some passengers protested, holding signs that read "Fly more aircraft," and "Low-cost carrier, low-cost service."
The LCCs said they could not offer more flights to Jeju as full-service carriers had, because their fleets are smaller.
Under aviation rules, passengers can seek compensation for damages from flight
cancellations caused by plane problems. But in the Jeju case where weather caused delays and cancellations, the airlines are not obliged to pay compensation.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Tuesday that because the airport was fully operational again, allowing 34 takeoffs and landings an hour at peak time, the remaining 20,000 travelers were expected to depart the island by Wednesday at the earliest.
On Tuesday, part of the engine cover of a Korean Air plane broke away at the airport, causing 10 flights to be delayed for an hour.
The flight had come from Seoul's Gimpo International Airport to take on passengers. No passengers were on board when the plane arrived at Jeju.
