When he arrived at Changi Airport's Budget Terminal early yesterday morning, financial adviser Lee CheeMun, 30, was looking forward to a stress-free getaway in Phuket with his fiancee.
Instead, he arrived at the airport to discover that his Tiger Airways flight, TR 152, had been cancelled. The next available flight, at 6.30pm yesterday, was a delayed flight, which was originally scheduled to take off at 9.25am.
"I was directed from counter to counter, and when I was finally served, the counter staff member could not give me any reason for my flight's cancellation," Mr Lee told my paper of his morning at Changi Airport.
Besides the Phuket flight, the airline also cancelled one flight to Ho Chi Minh City and one to Bangkok yesterday.
When contacted by my paper, a spokesman for Tiger Airways attributed the cancellations to "operational constraints".
When asked for more details, the spokesman said he was "unable to expand further".
The airline said it had contacted all affected passengers via e-mail on Monday to inform them of the cancellation. Passengers could opt to book the next available flight to their destination, change their travel dates, or ask for a full refund.
This is standard procedure, even for larger carriers like Singapore Airlines and KLM, according to their websites. Airlines also typically reserve the right to change scheduled flights at their discretion.
While the Tiger Airways website displays its punctuality average at 82% as of September, the airline has made headlines this year for long flight delays, according to past media reports.
For example, in June, 180 passengers were stranded at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport for 28 hours due to technical problems with the aircraft they were scheduled to board.
Mr Lee, who had paid about $350 for two tickets, feels that he was inconvenienced as the delay set him back in his travel plans. He took the 6.30pm flight to Phuket yesterday.
"I made bookings for leisure activities and island tours as I was trying to squeeze in as much as possible during my three-day trip," he told my paper over the phone from the Budget Terminal, where he was standing in line to check in for his 6.30pm flight.
Added Mr Lee, who said he did not receive the e-mail notification: "For something as urgent as a flight cancellation, isn't it easier to just pick up the phone to call the passengers, instead of causing so much inconvenience?"
