From Dr M. Asciak MD

My favourite Latin haunt is Rome, with Paris coming a close second. Paris in the springtime, summer, autumn or winter is always a pleasure to behold. The avenues around the Opera and L’Êtoile, the intellectual atmosphere of the Sorbonne, the heights of Montmartre, the culture around the Tuileries and commerce along the Rue Rivoli and Chatelet all contribute to an intellectual and pleasant scenery with which I can associate and feel at home in and which I look forward to. That is why it surprises me how many relatively few direct flights journey to this destination and how difficult it is sometimes to get there and back!

Recently, I had to attend a Bioethics Conference in Paris. There was no direct flight by Air Malta on the day so I was booked on a Lufthansa flight via Dusseldorf and back by the same route. On arrival at the airport at 6am, I found out that an Air Malta plane was operating the flight to Dusseldorf on behalf of Lufthansa. The plane left late, as there was mist at Dusseldorf that dictated the loss of my connection to Paris. Connection interval was only 40 minutes. It was not too bad as there was another flight to Paris by Air France two hours later and I was dispatched on that.

The conference and my stay in Paris were excellent. Alas, not so the return flight.

The flight back from Paris to Dusseldorf was operated by Lufthansa, which left exactly on time and even arrived five minutes earlier than stipulated, in Dusseldorf. My luggage was sent through to Malta. Before the flight I realised that I only had a 30-minute connection time between my present flight and the one from Dusseldorf to Malta operated by Air Malta on behalf of Lufthansa.

Taking this up with the airline attendant I was informed that this was sufficient time for the connection as Dusseldorf was considered a small airport. On arrival I proceeded to the Lufthansa desk and was directed to the Lufthansa check-in counter, which re-directed me to the Air Malta check in counter, which was empty.

I was promptly asked to proceed to the Swissport counter where I was politely informed that I was too late to board the flight, with 20 minutes to go before the plane left. There were other passengers with me in the same predicament. We were informed that though the plane was still on the ground, the bus to the plane had already left. I retorted that it would not be a very big issue to call the bus back and pick up the remaining passengers. But the man at the counter was adamant that we had missed our flight and had to remain in Dusseldorf. That was it!

When I asked why the airlines issue tickets with flight time connections that are physically impossible to keep, he retorted that that was Lufthansa’s problem not his. Of course he faced something of a quasi-fierce vociferous Maltese backlash from us all, which surprised him, and this seemed to convince him to make several quick phone calls. He informed us that we could take a flight to London on British Airways leaving in 40 minutes, which arrived 90 minutes before the last Air Malta flight left for Malta.

He also informed us that we could probably not make the connection, as there was a change in terminals involved. He also informed us that our luggage could not be re-routed to London as there was not enough time to do so! Facing the prospect of being stranded in either Dusseldorf or London, all of us chose the latter option. Luckily, since we had no luggage, this proved to be a godsend as our transit times in London were substantially shortened.

We finally made the Air Malta flight with minutes to spare. Alas, as I write this letter two days later, I am still waiting for my luggage, which seems to have been misplaced somewhere between Dusseldorf and Frankfurt by Swissport acting on behalf of Air Malta acting on behalf of Lufthansa.

I once read in an article that the new definition of the global society was breakfast in New York, lunch in London and dinner in Paris. In my case it seems to have been breakfast in Paris, lunch in Dusseldorf, tea in London, a late dinner in Malta and luggage God only knows where!

The big question is why are tickets issued with flight connection times that are impossible to achieve. The reply seems to have been that we as passengers were aware of the connection times on the tickets when we accepted to book the flight. What we were not aware of, or misled to believe, is that those connection times were physically impossible to achieve.

All travellers should beware and not accept airline tickets for connecting flights shorter than one hour. Some destinations such as London would require two. I also suggest that airline clerks should not issue these tickets unless the connections are workable as this would amount to misleading the clients.

Michael Asciak