Stranded Swiss passengers have to spend the night in Belgrade airport terminal: “We have to lie freezing on the ground”

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The Swiss flight LX1419 from Belgrade to Zurich was scheduled to depart on Sunday evening at 8 p.m. The departure was briefly postponed until 10:15 PM and then canceled completely. This without Swiss unburdening the booked and stranded passengers. Apparently an unfortunate set of circumstances led to this. Contributing cause? A storm that hit Belgrade on Sunday evening.

Reporters from Blick readers report from Belgrade airport with photos showing passengers freezing and sleeping on the ground. The on-site staff made no effort to arrange a hotel or food for the airline’s frustrated customers, a reader reporter told Blick. “We have to lie on the ground, freezing. “We don’t have a hotel and we don’t get food,” complains a stranded passenger.

Swiss would pay for hotel accommodation

According to current passenger rights, which Swiss must also adhere to, passengers are entitled to hotel accommodation and meals if their flight is postponed to the next day: “If your departure is postponed to the next day, we will take care of your hotel accommodation,” it says there on the airline’s website. “If our employees are unable to do this, you can book a hotel yourself and submit the costs for accommodation, transport between airport and hotel and meals for reimbursement.”

According to a Blick reader among the stranded passengers, staff on site said the airline’s contracted hotels in Belgrade were fully booked – and there was nothing the staff on site could do. Instead, passengers were given a QR code with which they could rebook the flight or request a refund.

The form with the code also clearly states that hotel costs will be reimbursed. “It would have been easy for the Swiss to simply book hotels for the passengers who wanted them,” the horrified passenger told Blick. “A lot of people here haven’t had any sleep in almost 24 hours.” The man speaks of about 120 people stranded in the airport terminal.

Bottlenecks in hotels

Michael Pelzer, spokesperson for Swiss, also confirmed this to Blick: “Apparently there were, as suspected, bottlenecks in the available hotel rooms in the city on Sunday evening.” According to Pelzer, the flight was postponed due to a very heavy thunderstorm with flooding. Airline crews also had difficulty reaching or leaving the airport. Due to the weather, there was a handling stop at the entire airport, which meant that the plane could not be refueled in time for the return flight. “Due to the delay, it was no longer possible to land in Zurich before the night flight ban,” Pelzer said when asked by Blick.

The landing should have taken place after midnight. This is only possible in exceptional situations. “We must accept these terms and conditions,” says Pelzer. “In such a case, we generally cover the costs of a hotel stay with dinner and breakfast for our passengers,” the Swiss spokesperson said. “We are very sorry that in this case this could not be implemented as usual. We would like to apologize to our passengers and fully understand the dissatisfaction here.”

Airline enforces night flight ban in Zurich

Pelzer further explains that the passengers were informed on site and received information sheets in German and English that they could also book another hotel independently and then hand over the voucher to us. In such a case we will of course reimburse the costs incurred.” According to reader reporters, Swiss guaranteed a replacement flight on Monday afternoon.

Similar passenger frenzy recently with the Bilbao flight

A similar case recently sparked passenger outrage after a Swiss plane bound for Bilbao, Spain, left all its passengers’ luggage in Zurich. Due to a “shortage of skilled workers”, the time frame to load the machine in Zurich-Kloten on time was running out.

The plane, operated by Swiss for Edelweiss, took off without luggage to reach Zurich before the night flight ban on the return flight. (kes)

Source: Blick