Foreign Ministry urges passengers to obey rules of airlines

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked Chinese passengers to "carefully read" all disclaimers before choosing budget airlines, and to avoid calling for more than stipulated in the agreement, according to a statement released on Wednesday by the ministry's consular department.

The statement was released in response to a recent protest at Japan's Narita International Airport involving 175 Chinese passengers stranded due to bad weather.

Budget airlines usually do not provide free meals or luggage checks, and do not allow passengers to change flights, as is stipulated in ticket purchase agreements, the statement said.

Buying the tickets shows that passengers agree to the terms, the statement said.

If flight delays occur, the ministry said, passengers should avoid going to extremes and not ask for more than the agreement allows－which the ministry suggested could get them into legal trouble.

According to an earlier statement on the ministry's website, the 175 passengers were stranded at the airport on Jan 24 after their Jetstar Airways Narita-Shanghai flight was canceled due to snow in Shanghai.

The area closes at 11 pm but the airline staff failed to explain to the stranded passengers in Chinese, which led to unruly behavior by some 100 passengers, it said.

The ministry intervened after a passenger engaged in a physical struggle with an airline staff member and was taken away by local police, it said.

The ministry said that the airline agreed to reimburse passenger meals and pledged to let them board the next flight back. They finally made it to Shanghai on Friday.