The last thing you need after a peaceful holiday is a flight delay. But a 24 hour delay, no communication and being treated like cattle is undignified and outrageous.

The story Brits Storm Dalaman Airport VIP Lounge After Flight Delay. highlights the plight of airline passengers when long delays occur. When the system works everything is fine if not a drudge. Relaxed you leave your holiday accommodation, take your transport to the airport, go through the first security check, wait in a long line to check-in with screaming kids in and then get challenged about the weight of your luggage. Stress levels are already rising. Then you have to pass through immigration before being faced with a huge departure lounge with only afew seats and over priced food and drink.

So after all this when you find out that your flight has been delayed you feel like a prisoner. But for the poor souls who were abandoned last Monday night at Dalaman Airport when their flight was delayed 24 hours it was awful. Who can blame them for trying to make a point and get someone to listen to them when the airport authorities and Gold Trail, their holiday company, were making a good job of ignoring them?

This situation highlights one of the biggest weaknesses with airports all over the world –a lack of planning for the inevitable flight delays.

Dalaman Airport is only a couple of years old but it has absolutely nowhere to ‘hold’ passengers in comfort who have been delayed. No seats, no bunks, no free refreshments and no entertainment. As the story highlights their back up plan seems to be to ship people out to a hotel in Dalaman town without even checking that the hotels had sufficient empty rooms?  Then, when things started to get heated, they called in the British Consulate to calm things down. Surely they could have done it themselves if they had suitable staff to mediate and communicate?

Maybe the protest will make Dalaman Airport management wake up to the problem of delays and the need to treat people with dignity and respect by putting in place suitable facilities on-site, a communication plan to inform delayed passengers and customer service representatives to help the passengers?

It may not be the airports fault when flights are delayed but they are in the front line. And when it does all go wrong it’s not only the airport authorities and travel companies that get a bad press but also, in this case, Turkey. Will any of those passengers now come back to Turkey on holiday again after this terrible experience?