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Kurdistan:
Institutionalizing the
civilian rights against abused power of travel
agencies
29.8.2006
By Arian Mahzouni
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Kurdistan-Iraq,
29 August 2006, -- Many people living outside of the
Kurdistan Region dreamed to avoid troublesome and
long way of travelling through the neighboring
countries to the region and therefore became
extremely happy and proud when the Erbil and
Sulaimaniyah airports were opened for the
international flights last year. People rushed to
open travel agencies without having any experiences
in the sector, which requires many skills and
resources e.g. effective management,
customer-oriented strategy, knowledge in
international business law, highly service-minded
staff, etc.
It is the fact that the air travel agencies in
Kurdistan lack of vision and business idea and their
only objective is to gain short-term profit of the
restricted flight market in the region. Let's give
an example of the latest disaster that one of the
unskilled travel agencies together with its airline
partners caused the civilians. |
Azmar Air |
Last month, a friend of mine in Germany had to
travel to Sulaimaniyah to carry out a development
project. He arranged a ticket from the Roza Travel
agency in Holland, which probably had no bank
account as it was not possible to pay for the ticket
from Germany. A few hours before the departure time
when he was already in Amsterdam, the agency
contacted him that the flight was postponed to the
following days.
The expenses caused by postponing were not
compensated by the agency but on a paper ,which was
included the highly expensive ticket, was written a
long list of warnings and rules to the passengers to
be extra charged if the ticket fee is not paid in
time, flight day is postponed, etcetera. But it was
not mentioned anything what would happen if the
agency does not deliver the services according to
the agreement. By arriving in Sulaimaniyah, he had
to go to the Azmar airline to postpone the flight
back to Amsterdam as it was difficult to complete
the planned work after postponing flight from
Amsterdam, but he had unfairly to pay an extra fee
of 10 USD.
On August 8th he nervously went to the Sulaimaniyah
airport and when he was waiting in a long queue to
receive the boarding card, suddenly the checking
staff stopped to get more passengers. Nobody knew
what was happen and the passengers heard many
speculations e.g. there were no more seats in the
plane because some members of political parties, who
have usually the privileged rights in the region,
have not booked the tickets and just came and took
the boarding card.
After about two hours being confused and angry, the
problem that was completely unknown for the
passengers was resolved and they were allowed to go
on board. But in the plane the passengers found the
problem that plane would go first to Stockholm and
then to Amsterdam, which the passengers were not
informed about and nobody was able to tell them when
and how they would arrive in Amsterdam.
Anyway, the plane arrived at Arlanda airport in
Stockholm at about 8pm in local time on the same day
and the passengers were informed by the Falcon
airline which was supposed to be the partner of Roza
Travel and Azmir airline that a plane was arranged
for the passengers to Amsterdam which would take off
at 10pm. Many confused passengers were calling their
relatives to declare a further delaying.
The plane arrived in Amsterdam at 3:30am on the
following day and after waiting about two hours at
the airport the passengers were taken by a bus to
the train station without knowing how to go to their
respective homes, many parents were highly desperate
and did not know how to calm their small children
who were crying constantly after about ten hours
delaying and frustrating.
The passengers experienced the same history when
desperate and powerless people were smuggled to
Europe without any plan and cheated by the
smugglers! Most of the passengers have now sword
never again to take this way of traveling and prefer
to travel long way through neighboring countries to
the region, which could at least plan when and how
to arrive in their respective destinations. It is
really surprising how Falcon airline, which has
obtained the USK award for its high service quality,
has trusted unprofessional agencies to cause so many
problems for the passengers in the name of the
company.
According to the international travel law, the
passengers deserve the absolute right to demand for
compensation of all caused problems and expenses if
the travel agency fails to prove that it has been
beyond its control.
The Roza Travel has simply been dishonest to tell
the truth and the passengers are really confused
which company has caused the problem and therefore
should be asked for compensation, the Roza Travel
itself, Azmar airline or Falcon airline. But it is
clear that the first responsible body is the Roza
Travel which has sold the ticket to the passenger
and if it is registered as a legal company in
Holland, there is a European business law that
protects the passenger's rights against the
monopolized and abused power of the agency. It is
not only the passenger who should pay extra fee for
postponing a flight but also the Rosa travel must
compensate any expenses caused by the flight
postponing.
Today, the people in Kurdistan are very proud and
happy to directly fly to their region but cannot
accept the opportunistic behavior of some
irresponsible agencies and airlines which dream to
be rich overnight at any expense and without
respecting the international travel law. They must
honestly and with clear evidence prove that the
flight postponing is beyond their control, if not
they have to compensate all the caused expenses and
I hope that the tourism authorities in Kurdistan act
for institutionalizing the civilian rights against
abused power of travel agencies.
Kurdishglobe
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