Aeroflot passengers complained Sunday that they had to sleep on the floor and chairs at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport after bad weather delayed their flight by more than 24 hours.
An Aeroflot representative turned down the passengers’ demand for hotel rooms for the night, the passengers said in a collective complaint sent to The Moscow Times.
Under Russian transportation regulations passed in 2007, airlines are required to provide food and accommodations for passengers stranded because of bad weather. The rules say they apply to domestic and international flights so long as they do not contradict the regulations of another jurisdiction.
U.S. federal law does not require airlines to provide for passengers in weather-related delays.
Sunday’s incident could deal a black eye to Aeroflot, which has made great strides toward building a world-class reputation since its Soviet days of dour flight attendants and notoriously poor service.
A help desk attendant at the state-run Aeroflot said late Sunday that the airline had provided rooms and meals to the stranded travelers earlier that day.
But one of the ill-fated flight’s passengers, Ksenia Galouchko, contested that statement. “We are still stuck here. … It is not certain whether we will be flying out tonight either,” she said by e-mail from the airport. “No sign of Aeroflot representatives for the past 11 hours.”
Galouchko, a former Moscow Times intern, said passengers with several other airlines with rerouted planes were provided hotel rooms.
Flight SU 316, originally scheduled to take off from JFK at 8:05 p.m. Saturday, was delayed to 8:55 p.m. Sunday, Aeroflot’s web site showed. It was unclear Sunday how many people checked in for the flight onboard an Airbus A-332, with 241 seats. Aeroflot’s help desk said it had no such information.
A powerful rain storm that hit the U.S. Northeast on Saturday, knocking down power lines and cutting electricity to more than 500,000, prevented Aeroflot’s incoming flight from landing in New York. Air controllers redirected it to Washington, the airline said.
Aeroflot did offer $15 food vouchers to passengers, the e-mailed complaint said, but only once in over 13 hours. A man who identified himself as Aeroflot representative Gennady Galkin walked out to the stranded travelers about six hours after the flight was to leave and suggested that they stay at the terminal for the night, the complaint said.
The representative denied people access to their luggage — and most of their personal belongings, including warm clothes — saying it had been sealed in storage containers, the complaint said. Airport officials who could have helped the situation had left, he said, according to the passengers. When the man left, airport employees called the police to force the people from the terminal. Police chose not to intervene.
“The passengers refused to leave the terminal and put themselves up on the terminal’s floor and chairs in expectation of further developments,” the complaint read. “There have been no steps towards the execution by the Aeroflot company of its obligations in a situation like this.”
Calls and an e-mail to Aeroflot’s press office in Moscow went unanswered Sunday.
Asked whether Aeroflot would investigate the service failure, the help desk attendant suggested that it would.
“I think this issue will not be just passed over,” she said, adding that passengers had the right to seek compensation for their distress. “I don’t know why this happened,” she said.