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BOTTOMLINE:
Online bookings still live, no warning on IATA either
Swissair
goes in thin air, lives on in cyberspace
Rohit
Bansal
No banner headlines to announce the demise. Indeed, no hard
information to bail out passengers holding Swissair tickets
has appeared so far on Swissair.com, 24 hours after the world
heard that the famed carrier has melted like Swiss cheese
to the heat of strategy-gone-dud and the Osama-effect.
The disarray in Swissair systems gives a distinct impression
that the airline was dropped like a stone in the middle of
a working day. Of minor relief is Swissair.com’s press section
link, with two info-bits posted October 2 in the afternoon.
That — mercifully enough! — “flights mid-air will continue
to operate” and “food and accommodation at Zurich” are being
organised by Unique, an independent airport operator.
Also, 180-odd flights which hadn’t taken off by 1400 hrs CET
on Tuesday, stand cancelled. Period. Not a word of guidance,
much less apology, to those holding worthless scraps of paper,
with some souvenir value, perhaps 50 years from now.
The Financial Express tried to book a Delhi-Zurich
ticket online, and boy, both swissair.com and swissairindia.com
were accepting bookings. We braved those silly fields, checked
for seats on Delhi-Zurich Flight SR195 for October 8, were
told that ‘C’ and ‘Y’ class seats can be had for Rs 30K plus
Rs 981 in tax, if we had a frequent flier card. We could apply
for one, but we didn’t. Crisis management systems weren’t
in evidence on the International Air Transport Association
(IATA) website either. Until late Wednesday night there’s
no alert that an important member of the world’s airline club
has gone bust. That its tickets are no longer valid on other
carriers. The last release is a fairly panicky outpouring
from secretary general Pierre Jeaniot, posted on September
25, pleading with oil majors to wake up and cut down prices.
IATA runs a $140 billion settlement system and a $33 billion
clearing house. This enables ticket-holders of one airline
to hook a seat on another IATA airline, even as the two square
up at the end of the settlement cycle.
To be fair, there is a paid section on iata.org for members
only. The information that Swissair tickets are non-redeemable
now in any other airline, may be available there. We don’t
know.
Curiously, the IATA site is advertising a crisis communications
course. A clarification buried in the Swissair.com news release
of October 2 tries to explain why a poor airport operator
at Zurich, not Swissair, is volunteering food and acco.
As per ‘nachlassstundung’, an administrative provision under
Swiss law, “We cannot make any financial contribution to the
provision of these services,” the airline informs.
Related stories:
Airlines,
travel bodies meet today to prepare action plan
Swissair
may not refund tickets
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