Medina Airport authorities have warned Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) management not to indulge in overbooking as it has been resulting in frequent denied boarding and chaos at the airport which cause inconvenience to other airlines' staff and passengers. According to a source at Medina airport last week a number of denied boarding cases were reported due to overbooking or change of aircraft at last moment by PIA, which attracted the wrath of Medina airport authorities.
'Since this denied boarding also disrupts flight schedules of PIA, it creates issues for airport authorities and sometimes results in panic at the airport. Moreover, PIA management there too finds it difficult, to accommodate passengers who get their boarding denied, in local hotels since this is Umrah season and no rooms are available in hotels,' added the source.
The source said that time and again the management had been advised not to take over-booking but they are not paying any heed on this issue which may result in cancellation of the airline's operations to Medina airport. 'This single act is creating too many hurdles for passengers, airport authorities, and PIA staff there but the culprits are not being held responsible, rather the management has turned a deaf ear towards the issue.'
The issue of not maintaining flight regularity and minimising delays at Medina is resulting in gross mishandling of passengers as well as causing disturbance to other airlines' passengers at the Medina airport that doesn't have extended facilities. 'This also bothers PIA staff there a great deal, for they find it really difficult to deal with the airport authorities regarding the allocation of check-in counters and slot updating,' added the source.
It is strange, the source added, why PIA management is not overcoming this deficiency that has been pain in the neck for passengers, airport authorities, and many others. 'The management first has to minimise flight irregularity and then in case of overbooking must adjust the load on alternate flights to avoid denied boarding,' suggested the source.
According to details, 14 passengers were overbooked on PK-748 scheduled from Medina to Islamabad on May 7 and were boarded on an alternate flight (PK-7466 scheduled from Jeddah to Islamabad) on May 9. The loss PIA incurred on accommodating and transferring those passengers from Medina to Jeddah was more than a hundred thousand rupees.
Similarly, 18 passengers were overbooked on PK-744 scheduled from Medina to Karachi on May 9, out of them 12 passengers were provided with alternate flight (PK-747, scheduled from Jeddah to Karachi) on May 10 while six passengers were accommodated on PK-748 scheduled from Medina to Multan on May 17.
However, three passengers were overbooked on PK-748 scheduled from Medina to Multan on May 10, hence they were denied boarding. Alternate flight (PK-732, scheduled from Jeddah to Karachi) was provided to them on May 11.
'These three denied boarding incidents cost PIA over Rs 200,000 in terms of hotel accommodation, food, and transportation. One could easily infer from these three incidents in just one week that how much loss PIA has been incurring since long due to overbooking issue. It is high time someone in the higher management acts and sets the things right,' added the source.
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