Nova Scotia Comes Alive in 2011!

Zoom and Gloom

I picked up my son at Halifax International Airport yesterday and saw the forlorn tail of a Zoom 767 on the tarmac going nowhere because the company owes the airport scads of money. Travel officials were “caught off-guard” by the grounding of Zoom which finally succumbed to the malady of high fuel prices.

What is it with the airline industry in this country? Canada 2000 went belly up in 2001 and Jetsgo in March of this year but no one in the industry saw fit to let the travelers know beforehand? At least Alitalia is letting everyone know that it is filing for bankruptcy.

What bothers me is the way the stranded travelers are being treated here in Halifax and by the rest of the industry. These are people on summer vacation with full-paid tickets waiting to home. All of a sudden their tickets are worthless and they are stranded in an u familiar surrounding waiting to back home to Europe and other parts. And it seems that the great hospitality of Halifax that was so highly bugled for helping people in the days after Sept. 1, 2001 was somehow misplaced during this time of great frustration for these weary travelers. It’s like they are lepers and very few people and airline personnel were willing to help.

So what does this show about the airline industry as a whole?

1) They gouged full last-minute fare from the helpless travelers.

2) They left these people and their kids sleep in the airport.

3) They left out minimal information about other flights.

4) Few if any put on other equipment even though they were gouging them $2500 for a $600 fare.

Think of the tour companies, connecting flights, people stranded in Europe and other persons who are going to be almost wiped out by Zoom’s sudden demise. Couldn’t the Halifax Airport authorities put a high-paid cop on board to let the British authorities know that this aircraft owes money? Do they are abut money so badly that they would crucify the holidays of hundreds of people?

The government should make airlines and airports have a system just like law office have where clients are reimbursed for the crooked practices of bad lawyers. They should also make allowances to fly these people home or put them up in good accommodations until this can happen.

Again, the good will that Halifax accrued during the disaster after 9/11 has been poured out on the tarmac this week. Because if was Brit or other nationality, I wouldn’t come back.

NOTE: Pay for tickets with credit cards. It is rumored that those who paid with Visa and Amex will get refunds. This might take the sting off paying $1900 for a $600 ticket home.