Thousands of passengers face potentially long delays in returning from Hong Kong following yesterday”s (10 April) collapse of budget carrier Oasis.
The airline ” which operated five Boeing 747-400 aircraft on routes from Hong Kong to London Gatwick and Vancouver ” pulled the plug, stranding thousands of its customers ” many of whom were still on Easter holidays.
Rival Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific says it will provide two extra aircraft this weekend to repatriate Oasis passengers to Heathrow on a charter basis and has indicated it will offer a special one-way fare of ”160 ($316), while British Airways and Air New Zealand have also proffered help.
”We have been overwhelmed with stranded people trying to get flights in and out of Hong Kong,” said a Cathay Pacific spokeswoman, adding: ”It”s getting to a point where Cathay can”t help all of them.
”We”re trying to wade through these people [but] we”re not linked to Oasis, so don”t have access to their bookings. There is an [Oasis] flight each way [from London] so that”s around 500 passengers per day ” we”re talking about thousands of people.”
Cathay says it is planning for around two weeks of disruption at Chep Lap Kok, but adds that it is unsure whether or not passengers will be able to claim any refund.
Calls to Provisional Liquidators KPMG in Hong Kong were not returned to see if passengers could claim compensation, while a spokeswoman for the Chep Lap Kok airport remained tight-lipped as to precisely how many Oasis customers were affected and where they were staying ahead of return flights.