Canceled Flight By AirAsia X Causes Uproar

27th Dec 2014

Bali has been a popular resort destination for many Australians who wish to spend their holiday in the Indonesian tropical island paradise.

But the image of a tropical paradise to Australian passengers suddenly faded away on Christmas Day when their flight was canceled. They were supposed to be on the inaugural Melbourne-Bali flight of Indonesia AirAsia X, the Indonesian subsidiary of the AirAsia X, a long-haul brand. The flight was to depart on December 26 as scheduled.

However, the airline failed to secure the necessary documents from both Indonesian and Australian aviation regulatory bodies that would have allowed it to serve the route, thus the cancellation of its inaugural flight.

The airline, despite knowing that it has to obtain necessary documents prior to start operations, began selling tickets and taking bookings for the said inaugural flight early this month.

The airline offered consolation though to disappointed passengers who were mostly holidaymakers. They were told to take another flight by its sister airline, AirAsia X, from Melbourne to Bali via Kuala Lumpur.

The suggested new route will take them a total of 13 hours to get from Melbourne to Bali. The Melbourne-Bali direct flight only takes 6 hours.

A passenger who originally booked the Indonesia AirAsia X's inaugural flight was quoted as saying that almost all passengers on the AirAsia X flight (via Kuala Lumpur) that she took were originally booked for the canceled flight.

Another passenger admitted that she received a text message from the airline telling her that her Saturday flight had been canceled and had to wait until 1:45am Sunday, or 7 hours later for the next flight. She had no idea that her new flight was rerouted via Kuala Lumpur until Christmas Day when she got another text message from the airline.

A very upset mother vented her ire at the airline through the social media for wrecking her son and daughter-in-law's chances to attend her other daughter's wedding in Bali, which was to be held on December 28.

According to the airline's spokesperson, the airline wasn't able to launch the flight as scheduled because of unexpected circumstance which was beyond their control. He assured, though, that they're closely working with relevant authorities to secure the required documents to be able to fly soon.