Irate Chinese travellers hold airplane protest

HONG KONG—Chinese passengers refused to leave a plane at Hong Kong airport for several hours until they were paid compensation for reported flight delays, an airport official said Thursday.

The protest sit-in began when the Hong Kong Airlines plane landed around 5.30am local time on Wednesday from Singapore, according to airport spokeswoman Annie Li and local media reports.

“The plane landed at around 5:30am and the airline informed us of what happened at around 6:00 am. We sent staff to the aircraft,” Li said.

“I think the airline resolved it by paying its passengers some money.”

The Airbus 330 carrying 159 passengers had been delayed in Singapore for almost nine hours due to a technical fault, The South China Morning Post reported.

The airline offered HK$400 (US$51) each to compensate the passengers but 80 of them rejected the offer and refused to leave the plane until they received more money, the report said.

Fifty nine passengers gave up their sit-in and left the aircraft at 9:00 am but the remaining 21 — including a tour group from Shenzhen and four travellers from Hong Kong — remained on board.

Ninety minutes later they agreed to disembark, but they continued their protest inside the airport.

The protest finally ended around 1:30pm when the airline reportedly raised their compensation to HK$1,200 each.

“The amount of the compensation is not important. Their (Hong Kong Airlines) attitude was very poor,” one of the passengers from mainland China was quoted as telling Hong Kong’s iCable TV.

Another passenger told reporters that tensions were already high in Singapore when some of the passengers blocked an airport walkway after they were told the flight would be delayed.

The airline could not be reached for comment but a spokeswoman told The South China Morning Post that the passengers had been offered meals and drinks at Singapore while another aircraft was prepared.