As of this morning, Sapporo Airport has been hit by a blizzard, affecting 143 flights, including a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Sapporo. I’ve been through Sapporo many times as a little child, and many of my friends were on the flight, so I’m assuming a large number of you reading may be affected, as you may be thinking of/already spending an extremely white Christmas in Niseko, a village proven to be very popular with Hong Kong tourists.
Pre-blogger me enjoying elementary life at Niseko, Japan
An aircraft affected includes a Cathay Pacific 777-300, which was diverted to Tokyo Narita as a result of the blizzard. I’ve heard from some friends on the flight who seem to be fine and have access to Tokyo. There’s nothing that sucks worse than to have your vacation cut short by the weather…while you’re inflight, and it sucks even worse when you have no access to hotels either (as far as my friends have told me, they had to book their own hotel).
Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-300 Taipei Taoyuan Airport
According to them, a third of the passengers went back to Hong Kong along with the plane, while the rest of the passengers found their own way around in Tokyo. Darn!
Bottom Line
I’ve given Cathay Pacific such a hard time because I love them so much, and you’re often most critical of the things you love the most. But if your passengers are paying you to take care of them during the journey from Hong Kong to Sapporo, if the passengers aren’t at their destination, it’s ultimately the airline’s responsibility to take care of them.
Thumbs down, Cathay Pacific, and I hope that the 3,000+ people stranded at Chitose can find their way out as safely and quickly as possible.
