Airline Founder Flies to Japan To Personally Apologise To Stranded Passengers: Report

A founder of an airline is making international headlines after he flew to an airport to personally apologise to passengers who got stuck there overnight. According to Taiwan News, Chang Kuo-wei, chairman of Starlux Airlines, made an appearance at Japan's Narita International Airport on Sunday, May 7 to apologise to the 308 affected passengers for the delay. 

He was seen in a video explaining that one flight had been delayed due to ''really strong winds.'' Mr Kuo-wei also added that airlines will offer full refunds to passengers.

The second flight was delayed by an aircraft maintenance check before the flight crew exceeded their permitted working hours, Mr Kuo-wei told passengers. 

Notably, a series of delays led passengers on two flights to spend the night at the Narita International Airport on Saturday, May 6. Passengers on one flight were originally scheduled to board JX803 at 3:45 pm, but it was delayed to 4:20 pm without any explanation. Starlux then moved passengers to another flight at about 5:30 pm, after a staff member informed passengers that the two flights were being merged.

They boarded the plane at about 7 pm, only for the departure to be pushed back until 11 pm because another flight crew then had to be found. Meanwhile, the passengers were kept on the plane until almost midnight, following which the flight was cancelled.

Passengers were told they would need to spend the night at the terminal, and they were not allowed to leave the plane until sleeping bags arrived. At 1 am, passengers were finally let off the plane. They were then forced to sleep at the airport and were given meals at around 9:30 pm, as per the report.

The airline then announced that the plane would take off at 6 am on Sunday (May 7), but then the departure time was changed to 8 am again.

That's when Mr Kuo-wei appeared at the airport to apologize to the angry passengers, but not many were convinced. 

The plane finally did fly, around 16 hours after it was due to take off.  Passengers were not given food, water, or vouchers in the morning and had to buy their own breakfast.