WILLEMSTAD – One of the most read news media in Manaus, Brazil lashed out today against the Curaçao airline InselAir, with the article heading: “Voo da Insel Air Curaçao-Manaus é cancelado e passageiros buscam informações” (InselAir Curaçao-Manaus flight cancelled and passengers are looking for information).

According to the site the aircraft was scheduled to leave Curaçao yesterday at 20:50, but the flight was cancelled. As of today afternoon the passengers from Manaus and other parts of Brazil were still waiting for an explanation from the airline.

At least 60 passengers from Brazil are on the InselAir flight that was cancelled. First, the flight was delayed and then at 11 pm it was announced that the flight was cancelled. According to the site, this is the third time in two weeks that the passengers of the airline had to face similar problems with flight cancellations, whether from Manaus to Curaçao or vice versa.

What is more troublesome to the passengers is that the airline has not given any official explanation or reason why their flight was cancelled. An official even told a group of tourists that the flight was cancelled because there was no pilot. “We were all advised to pick up our bags, go to a hotel paid for by the company and return the next day because the flight would be rescheduled for 8 am.”

However, instead of relief, what followed were more frustrations. Still, according to the passengers, they were only able to leave the airport about two hours after the cancellation of the flight, in small groups of seven people per van. Upon arriving at the hotel, the passengers learned that instead of 8 am, the new flight to Manaus would be at 8:50 pm the following day, on Tuesday, January 10.

“It’s a very big frustration. We prepare for weeks, pay for a ticket, pay for a car, and today we cannot imagine that our flight would be delayed for an hour, another three hours and then a cancellation,” one of the passengers said, promising a lawsuit against the airline. “There in Manaus we received a good service, but not here. We received the news of the cancellation by a television and we still had to walk to the other said of the airport in the rain to get our bags all wet.”

According to the passenger, he was threatened with arrest by a police officer only for taking a photo of the airline official who was giving instructions on the procedures after the cancellation of the flight. “Our feeling is that of disrespect and bad faith on the part of the airline because this has happened systematically.”

Bron: CuracaoChronicle