Cathay Pacific Airways apologises to passengers stranded at New York Airport
29-Dec-2010 Cathay Pacific Airways today (Wednesday) apologised to the thousands of passengers stranded at the John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York for what they have had to endure during the long hours of delays caused by the snowstorms.
"We are particularly sorry for the great inconvenience that more than 1,100 passengers have suffered throughout their long wait inside our aircraft on the tarmac", a Cathay Pacific spokesman said.
A total of five Cathay Pacific flights had to wait on the tarmac because gates were not available at the airport for passengers to disembark. The length of waiting time on the tarmac ranged from four hours up to 11 hours for the five affected flights.
These passengers have now disembarked as the weather situation and operation conditions at the airport have improved.
"We are actively reviewing everything that led to this unfortunate situation so that we can work to prevent a recurrence in the future", the spokesman said.
"Our intentions to get our passengers to their destinations as quickly as possible were good, but we could not overcome the challenging conditions at JFK due to the snowstorm and as a result did not live up to our service standards, for which we sincerely apologise ", the spokesman added.
With the weather conditions in New York getting better, Cathay Pacific's scheduled services to and from New York today are expected to gradually resume normal over the next couple of days.
"We are also thankful to the JFK airport authorities for the support and assistance they rendered under a most testing operating condition," the spokesman said.