Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Saturday addressed an ultimatum to Wataniya Airways to resolve problems such as recurring flights’ delay and cancellation.
The DGC warned in a statement that in case the company failed to fulfil its duties properly, its permit would be suspended, effective September 6 for three months as an initial penalty, while compelling it to fulfil its financial and legal liabilities toward passengers.
If Wataniya Airways fails again to tackle these problems, it will be stripped of the license permanently.
The directorate said several warnings had been given to the company to no avail. It assured passengers that it would do its best to ensure their safety and rights, vowing to follow up on Wataniya’s commitment to secure their comeback either on its aircraft or planes of other companies. [Source]
I knew they were having delays and flight cancellations for a few months now but didn’t think it was this severe of an issue even though someone had even sent me a video of the crew loading up supermarket bags of food on the plane because at one point they had lost their catering contract. I hate seeing the airline fail like this since I worked with the original Wataniya Airways on their launch many years ago so when the airline came back again from the dead last year, I had high hopes. And even though I had an average experience flying with them back in November, it was still good having an extra airline to choose from when planning trips. Maybe this will be their turning point…
11 replies on “Wataniya Airways Gets Ultimatum”
The delays and cancellations reached rock bottom this summer, with an average delay of 4-5 hours!!!
It was the worst experience specially flights during the last week, I travelled to Doha and my flight was delayed & cancelled thrice. There were passengers on the airport for 2 days. It was just horrible experience for a short flight. Too much stress to end the holiday with.
It’s getting worse and worse! It all boils down to bad management. Everything that has been happening only highlights inexperience in the business. Mixed with bad communications its a total disaster.
Hope this also serves as a wake up call for Jazeera…
Unfortunately booked my ticket with Wataniya on 24 Aug 2018, Doha to Kuwait 10:55 AM, Q9134 and had the worst travel experience of my life.
I want to make it clear that I had faced extreme mental pressure and physical exhaustion because of the uncaring nature and irresponsible actions by the Wataniya Airways.
There was no proper authorized team for Wataniya Airways in Qatar to guide the passengers or clear the doubts or to manage the panic spread in the crowd due to the flight delay.
There were just a few team members responsible for the Wataniya Airways in Qatar and they were helpless not knowing how to handle the situation.
The team kept saying 1 hour, 2 hours!! And then finally they took 24 hours of our time! A day wasted! Food and restrooms were offered really late. I was late for the office the next day. we had to wait till midnight 1.30 to get room to rest. I regret booking my ticket with Wataniya Airways and will never ever book my tickets with your airways again. I will also spread this news to my friends and family !!!
A friend just returned from Georgia – exact same feelings as above. Went with Wataniya (said it felt like a cheap bus with wings, some overhead storage cabins didn’t even have flaps!) but his return flight was cancelled. He had to pay 250 odd KD for a one way ticket to Kuwait via Qatar Airways.
They deserve that, and it is so severe. Just going through the comments section on any of their Instagram posts tells how bad it is.
Booked with them to Lebanon months ago for a trip planned for 9th of August, after hearing one horror story after another, and them calling me telling my flight had be canceled for my return on the 12th, to the 13th, without sending me a email confirmation. I took the decision to cancel my flight with them and book MEA instead.
It happen to be a good choice as they ended up delaying the outbound flight. And luckily I was not on it. I have called them several times, but no sight of my money. So My trip has cost me close to 300KD because of their incompetent asses. Now is the question how do I get my money back?
I can afford it, but I feel sorry for dose who don’t have the means and who got their vacation spoiled.
Call your bank, they can reverse the CC payment. This is basically fraud.
They ruined our vacation plan this summer, they just cancelled our AUG2 flight KWI>BEY without any prior notice. We got our refund, however, I didn’t find another booking and had to wait for another 4 days in Kuwait while paying for the car I rented and already parked at BEY airport.
In addition, Jazeera Airways is not better anyway, their new terminal doesn’t have a duty free, they were lost advising us the correct gate to wait at B1 or B2, and had to move up and down 3 times. I asked for a prayer room in T3 and didn’t find it anywhere and to make it worse the plane took off 2 hours post the scheduled departure. On board, they’re not serving free meals anymore, only a cup of water! Yes, you have to pay for the sandwiches that you’ll buy from a menu for your family, the family right next to me payed almost 18kd for sandwiches and juice only. Jazeera prices are not cheaper than Kuwait Airways or Middle East Airlines to attract you anymore. So why I have to compromise and choose them in the future? My #1 future choice would be Kuwait Airways for sure (46KG baggage allowance, flexible in changing booking, excellent service, meals are served, reliable in schedule adherence…).
I took Jazeera too and man the new terminal is bad. The bus dropping us off was worse than the terminal
I didn’t pay for food or drink (it was a short flight) but I would rather bring in food from the airport and eat it on the plane and stink up the whole plane than pay for their stuff.
Except for some dumb reason they closed off the door between the main airport and Jazeera terminal – so you couldn’t even go to a restaurant in the 3 hour delay we had.