Struggles, cries and insults after the cancellation of flights to El Palomar

Wrangling, shouting and insults: this was the scenario


El Palomar
at dawn on Wednesday. At a time of high demand for winter holidays, the airline


low cost
Flybondi
canceled three flights due to poor visibility and blocked about 400 people.

L & # 39; airport
He resumed his operations in the morning. After the scandal at dawn, the airline, the airport concessionaire and the state gave explanations, and even the request of an attorney's office to pre-emptively suspend the flights from Flybondi.

Prosecutor Jorge Di Lello His deputy, Franco Picardi, asked Judge Sergio Torres to suspend the "preventive" flights Flybondi until the corresponding technical bodies are issued on the conditions of the plane of the airline, confirmed
THE NACION judicial sources

Pending the decision of the judge, they told the company that they have not yet been notified and that flights continue to operate normally.

About the episode of yesterday morning An affected pbadenger explained that his trip to Córdoba, which was scheduled to leave at 9 pm, was postponed until 1:40 am without notice. When he came to


El Palomar
she found hundreds of people in the same situation as her.

She recounted that, although the airport was prepared in terms of infrastructure, there was not enough space for all pbadengers waiting, including children and babies – could be located.

Around 2.30am, the announcement arrived on the speaker: the three flights, which were to take off towards Córdoba and Mendoza, would be canceled due to the low visibility. The temperaments were already hot and the fury broke out.

The stranded pbadengers were complaining because they had lost hotel bookings and transportation costs to get to and from the airport. The three Flybondi employees who were there faced dozens of disgruntled customers who shouted at them and in some cases even pushed them.

As the company only has digital customer service channels, Solve all your doubts right now. The pbadenger who traveled to Cordoba said that she tried to communicate by that route, but that she had no answer, so all the information she had on her flight was at the airport: she would pay back the money she had spent for the tickets on her credit card

Shared Responsibilities

From the areolínea they explained that he was trying to look for all possible alternatives of relocation, aircraft from the same company – that right now they are four instead of five by
the accident occurred in Misiones – to those of other companies, but because of the high demand was not possible.

Alternative solutions, detailed, are the refund of money or leave a ticket open at 30 days so that they can compensate the canceled flight In addition, the company explained that the cancellation It was not their responsibility, but was due to the fact that the airport does not have the technology to operate in low visibility conditions.

"It is important to clarify that Flybondi does not participate in determinations the operating conditions of the airport and has no interference in the infrastructure with which it a ", reported the statement that the company has distributed this morning.

From Aeropuertos Argentina 2000, the airport concessionaire, clarified that (ANAC) who determined that El Palomar could not operate with a visibility of less than 2700 meters – at Aeroparque this distance is reduced to 800 meters – so there is a greater possibility that a drizzle affects activities.

From Flybondi they added that in addition to the restrictions in the days of low visibility, the airport "does not have the necessary technology" to be able to operate.

This technology is the conditioning of the Instrumental Landing System (ILS), which operates fully at Ezeiza and Aeroparque. The spokespersons of Argentina Airports 2000 said that the improvement of this tool in El Palomar is an investment that corresponds to the National State.

The ANAC explained that the state investment has already been made, but that it "lacks a procedure the concessionaire and the authorities to lower the minimum of visibility". He is working to have this technology in a month, said the agency

This is not the first episode of Flybondi's disturbance in El Palomar. In fact, the first flight of the airline to the airport was to
Wander to Ezeiza by a storm. For a while, the company also had to operate at Ezeiza and Aeroparque for
amparo asked by neighbors for studies of environmental impact.