Emirates Cancels A380 Flight From Tokyo, Offers Sleeping Bags

The reader who asked to remain anonymous shared an unpleasant experience on a flight from Tokyo to London.

Emirates A380 flight canceled due to Narita Airport curfew

The flight is scheduled to leave Tokyo Narita Airport at 10:30PM and arrive atDXB at 5:30AM the next day. The nearly 500 passengers booked on this flight on Friday, December 23, 2022, were not treated to a treat like the passengers on the other flights.

Due to the curfew at the airport, there were a lot of bigger issues that came about. What did happen? The reader said it was according to them.

• The plane pushed back at 10:35PM, though within a few minutes the plane stopped, the lights were turned off, and there were no updates
• At 10:45PM the plane returned to the gate without any announcement
• At 11PM the captain explained there was a technical issue that needed to be resolved; there was reportedly a strong burning smell on the lower deck
• At 11:45PM the captain announced the issue was resolved, so the plane pushed back and started to taxi to the runway; the plane taxied for around 10 minutes, but stopped at 11:55PM
• Shortly after 12AM, the plane turned around; the captain announced that the runway was closed for maintenance and that they’d have to return to the gate, while the announcement in Japanese (correctly) reflected that the air traffic controllers refused takeoff due to the airport’s curfew
• At 12:30AM the captain announced that management was trying to find a solution, but that they’d start a meal service onboard; there was no further communication from the crew for nearly two hours
• At 2:25AM the crew announced that all passengers were to deplane; the upper deck was allowed to deplane first, followed by the lower deck

In the middle of the night, there are almost 500 passengers in the terminal. What do you think will happen next? Well...

Emirates’ terrible handling of this situation

Passengers were expecting to get hotel vouchers when they entered the terminal. They were given sleeping bags and bottles of water when the flight was delayed.

A few passengers, including the OMAAT reader, confronted the station manager, who claimed that he couldn't find rooms for everyone. Everyone has to stay in the airport. The CEO of a major Japanese company threatened legal action, which caused his tone to change.

Only a few people were allowed to leave the airport after three people approached the manager. The reader had a "did not depart" stamp on his passport. At this time, there was only one taxi at the airport, so the three of them split it and lived in the same neighborhood.

Hundreds of people ended up sleeping in sleeping bags at the airport, based on social media posts.

People were still asleep when the reader came back to the airport. The man was told to go to the lounge. There was no bottled water in the lounge.

The flight finally left at 4PM and arrived around 10PM, around 16 hours late.

This situation was horribly handled

When you think about how complex airlines are, they operate pretty well. If you have an airport with a curfew, and a flight that is only scheduled to leave a short time before it, any technical issues can lead to an overnight delay.

When the delay is within the carrier's control, airlines have a duty of care. We don't know what lengths the airline went to find a place to stay. 500 hotel rooms could be found somewhere, though maybe not near the airport, and maybe only in smaller blocks.

Giving passengers sleeping bags and not allowing them to leave the airport is not reasonable. A good number of the 500 passengers had a place to stay in Japan, but it is thought that only six of them were allowed to leave the airport.

I don't envy the job of airline employees in irregular operations, but an airline should be able to do better.

Bottom line

There was a minor maintenance issue that caused the flight to miss the curfew at the airport. The airline gave sleeping bags to passengers and told them to stay in the terminal for most of the day. That is not a good show on the part of the airline.

What do you think about the delay at the airport?