12 April, 2008                                                                                  Litigation with a former staff, the loss of pilots and the resignation of the managing director does not seem to be the end of problems for Druk Air. The airline’s recent rescheduling of flights left 275 tourists stranded, hurting more than nine local tour operators.

The most affected tour companies were BTCL with 58 clients, International Tours and Treks with 51, Etho Metho with 37, Sakten Tours and Treks with 22, Aman Kora with 28, All Bhutan Connection with 19, Yangphel Tours and Treks with 18, Namgay Adventures with 16 and Gangri Tours and Treks with 15. There were also other operators with smaller number of clients.

The Managing Director of Gangri Tours and Treks, Kesang Namgyel, said that he had a group of 13 tourists coming in yesterday but because of the rescheduling of the flights they lost a day for which his company had to refund the money. “Druk Air has lots of changes on their timings, seat cancellations and rescheduling of flights which causes a lot of hassles for us,” he said.

The Operational Manager of Etho Metho Tours and Treks,Tenzin Namgay, said they had a group coming in yesterday, one on Sunday, one on April 24 and one on May 1.

The clients, he said, were not happy because they did not want to change their schedule, “This hampers the business and creates a lot of inconveniences like changing their visas and trying to contact them when they have already left their country,” he said.

He added because of cancellation of seats and rescheduling, outside agents did not feel secure with Druk Air. He suggested Druk Air should either stick with the same schedule or announce changes well in advance.Thinley Wangchuk Dorjee, the MD of BTCL, said rescheduling and rerouting did affect them to some extent but Druk Air had been helpful in bearing the one day stay cost for the tourists.

“Things like these have been going on quite frequently now, like the cancellation of seats, rerouting, and changes in flight. I hope things will be streamlined and stabilized in the future because in the long run this can affect the numbers of tourists coming into Bhutan,” he said.

Tenzin Drakpa, the MD of Rabsel Tours, said right now he did not have much tourists coming in but when the next season begins he hoped that Druk Air will have streamlined such procedures.Druk Air’s Head of CommercialDivision, Tandin Gyamtsho told Observer this was the second time this year when flights had to be rescheduled, once during the Paro Tshechu to accommodate the tourists and now because of the increasing number of tourists coming in.

He said tour operators were given tentative plans in advance so that they could inform their tourists. Also that the changes were mostly in timing and not in the date of operation.The tentative schedule was then sent to authorities in India, Bangkok and Bangladesh where slot committees took time to approve the schedules.

“Sometimes when we ask them for the schedules they cannot give it because the slots have already been taken by other airlines and the timing given to us is not suitable. Then again we have to request for an alternate timing so as this goes on, a lot of time is consumed,” said Tandin Gyamtsho.

He said this year there had been big changes because of the increase in number of flights in India, many slots in Delhi and Mumbai were taken and these airports have only one runway.“When we keep on giving changes down there, we keep on losing slots, so now we have a meeting with ABTO to tell them that wherever possible, we will have a spare flight so there is no pressure with the change in slots,” he said.

Sonam Dorji, the General Secretary of ABTO, said the last minute changing of flight timings was very unfortunate for the tour operators and unorganized and not well planned on the part of the Druk Air. “We have the traditional flight route; they are removing the travel route in the middle of the tourist season, at the last minute,” he said.

The rescheduling of incoming flights meant the loss of one night royalty per head for the government, hoteliers, guides and tour operators.Tandin Gyamtsho said this was a lesson they learnt and that Druk Air will be thouroughly studying it.

Source: Bhutan Observer

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