Kenya’s national carrier Kenya Airways (KQ) has found itself in another controversy after a passenger decried cancellation of flights without prior communication by the airline.
One Lanji Ouko Awori ranted on Twitter saying that he was among 50 Kenyans who were left stranded at JFK Airport in New York on Sunday after the cancellation of the flight.
He added that KQ’s customer care could not be reached either.
“Fly directly from New York with KQ at your own peril! Customer Service is non-existent, on day 3 arguing with a wall because there is no customer service,” he posted on Twitter.
From the cancellation of flights, the Kenyan-bound passengers said that their COVID-19 certificates had expired.
All inbound passengers are required to present a COVID-19 test certificate conducted not more than 72 hours before arrival in Kenya.
With their expiry, it was impossible for them to hop on to other flights to Nairobi from other airlines.
Five days later, Kenya Airways issued a statement only saying that they had a technical hitch caused by a snow storm.
As a result, all flights were rescheduled.
“All our passengers were re-routed or accommodated until the next flight or -ve PCR test, kindly get in touch via DM if you still have concerns,” KQ wrote on Twitter.
However, Awori once again faulted the airline after the statement saying that KQ did not notify any hotel of this change.
KQ did not respond to this claim.
Airlines across the world were forced to cancel and reschedule some of their flights to some part of the US due to a fierce snow storm.
On Wednesday alone, American, United, Delta and Southwest Airlines which are the largest in the US cancelled a total of 2,200 flights.
On Thursday, another 1,230 flights were cancelled.
The snowstorm added to the pain caused to the aviation industry by the COVID-19 pandemic.
