Jordanian students stranded in London due to airport closure

By Luma Al Adnani

AMMAN - Several Jordanian students trying to come home for the Christmas holiday are stuck in London after Heathrow Airport closed for two days due to severe weather conditions, according to their families.

"My son lives in Birmingham, and he took a bus from there to London on Saturday, which took more than twice the time it usually does. By the time he reached Heathrow Airport, they told him that his flight was canceled," Rana Kaddoura told The Jordan Times yesterday.

Her son, Nidal, said he had a harrowing trip to London.

"My bus almost had two accidents… We were stuck for hours on the way because of other accidents in front of us," he noted in an e-mail sent to The Jordan Times.

"I was afraid I'd miss my flight but once I got there they told me it had been delayed. So I sat and waited… it was so crowded, people were sitting, sleeping or eating on the floor. Meanwhile I heard flights being canceled one after the other on the microphone, but I still waited for my flight, until finally they said it was canceled too," he added.

His mother said she watches BBC news “continuously” and monitors weather conditions.

“They are predicting another stronger storm… I'm thinking about telling my son to just go back to Birmingham and not risk it anymore," she said.

Other students, like Omar Sawalha and Garbis Karmandarian are in a similar situation, according to their mothers.

"My son Omar stayed at a friend's the first day he was told his flight was canceled, but he plans on camping out at Heathrow tonight in case a flight opens up," Jackie Sawalha said.

"It frustrates him that he might not be able to get a flight for another week, and then he'll have missed most of the holiday," she added.

Karmandarian was more fortunate than others as he checked in and entered the duty free area, according to his mother, Marian.

"Once it was announced that the flight had been canceled, they gave them those foil blankets so that they could spend the night at the airport," she said.

Meanwhile, Royal Jordanian, which operated its regular flight to London on Monday when the airport reopened, has requested Heathrow to authorize an additional flight today and is awaiting confirmation, RJ Media Director Basel Kilani told The Jordan Times yesterday.

The airline had also asked Heathrow to authorize two additional flights yesterday, to transport passengers who have bookings to Amman and have been stuck in London for the past two days, RJ President and CEO Hussein Dabbas said on Monday.

But the airport authorities did not agree to the request, because of the large number of such requests from other airlines, an RJ statement quoted Dabbas as saying.

He said the company is keen to get air traffic between Amman and London back to normal after the disruption caused by the weather conditions, stressing that passengers’ safety and comfort is its first priority...

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=32815.