Frustration, worry: Foreigners stuck in S’pore after flights cancelled due to airspace closure

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SINGAPORE – It took multiple phone calls, three visits to the Emirates office in North Bridge Road, and hours of waiting before Ms Anna Napierala was sure her mother would be able to fly safely from Singapore to her home town in Poland.

When news of the

airspace closures across the Middle East

first broke, the 41-year-old called repeatedly to check if her 63-year-old mother’s March 3 Emirates flight – due to transit in Dubai – was cancelled.

But without timely updates from the airline, the Singapore-based teacher had to make her way to the Emirates office on March 2, where she was greeted by a snaking queue.

She left because the estimated waiting time at 4pm was three hours, and the office was set to close at 6.30pm.

She was able to see a customer service agent only after her third visit, when she secured a seat for her mother on a Turkish Airlines flight on March 10. This will transit in Istanbul instead.

While Emirates handled the rebooking process and she did not have to pay extra, Ms Napierala said it was an arduous and “frustrating” experience. Even so, she is relieved that her mother will no longer fly through the affected airspace.

When The Straits Times visited Emirates’ office at 10am on March 3, at least 40 people were waiting in line.

Ms Napierala’s mother was among the many affected foreign passengers left stranded and uncertain in Singapore due to the closures of skies in the Middle East, after

the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran

on Feb 28.

Others, like Ms Samanta Alecs Delojo, 30, still have not heard back on how they can fly home. She was transiting in Singapore after holidaying in the Philippines and Thailand.

The client servicing executive’s Singapore Airlines flight from Singapore to Dubai on Feb 28 was cancelled, only after all passengers had boarded the plane and waited for more than an hour on board.

Ms Delojo, who is a Filipina residing in Dubai, had to disembark the plane and was given a complimentary night’s stay at the Hilton Singapore Orchard and allowance totalling $144 for three meals per person from SIA. She was travelling with her husband.

She is “quite worried” about the situation, as the flight cancellations are indefinite until further notice. This means she will have to continue covering her accommodation and daily expenses from her own pocket. So far, she has already spent $267 on four nights of accommodation from March 1 to 4.

Ms Delojo added that no one from SIA has reached out to her so far, noting that she hopes to receive more support for accommodation in Singapore.

Ms Carmen Wong, 38, was also among those waiting in line at Emirates’ office. She was trying to book her mother-in-law a flight back from Dubai to Singapore.

The homemaker had attempted to call the airline hotline every day since Emirates suspended its flights from and to Singapore on March 1. While she was able to speak to an agent, the call was disconnected before she could be transferred to the ticket booking team.

This is because international calls to the hotline are restricted to a maximum duration of one hour, after which the call is automatically terminated.

Ms Wong said that she would be put on hold for at least 40 minutes, leaving insufficient time for her call to be transferred to the ticket booking team.

“These one-hour calls were making me miserable, to have my call suddenly cut off after waiting for so long,” she added.

Ms Wong visited Emirates’ office on March 2 and managed to change her mother-in-law’s flight to March 6, after a four-hour wait.

But upon receiving news that

limited flights were being resumed at an earlier date

, she paid another visit to the airline’s office on March 3 and managed to get her mother-in-law on an Emirates flight departing from Dubai on March 4.

Separately, Mr Terry Htut, 35, tried his luck to get a full refund for an upcoming flight to Paris.

But as his flight was scheduled for April 5, Emirates staff directed the business owner to cancel or modify his flight online instead.

ST understands that passengers with bookings scheduled beyond the week of March 2 were directed to return to the Emirates office closer to their flight date, or make adjustments to their itinerary online.

When ST visited Qatar Airways’ office in Church Street, a notice had been put up at the entrance to inform visitors that the office did not have the required facilities to support customers on reservations and ticketing matters.

It also directed customers to manage their bookings online.

Similarly, when ST visited Etihad Airways’ office at Changi Airport Terminal 2, there were no customers waiting in line.

Mr Hazriq Idrus, 48, is among the Singaporeans stranded in the Middle East because of the conflict. His Etihad Airways flight from Madinah in Saudi Arabia to Singapore, via Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, on Feb 28 was cancelled.

But he had booked his ticket indirectly via a third-party travel booking platform, so he could not receive alerts directly from Etihad Airways – which was why he found out about the flight cancellation only after trying to check in at the airport in Madinah.

The entire situation left him feeling “restless and unsettled”, but he has decided to make the most of his time in Madinah as it is a “place of solace” for him. Meanwhile, he will be actively looking for alternative flights to return home.