
Originally Posted by
abortretryfail
Nearly all airlines now will announce by name if there is someone missing. One thing I did notice about Cebu Pacific in some recent trips is that in nearly half the flights we were actually called for boarding and took off ahead of schedule. So how would it be if you checked in, found you still had time so you slip out for a meal, then get back around boarding time and find your flight had already left?
Though as someone said, the article doesn't state what time they got back to the boarding area.
They will keep calling til departure time arrives. Only when they are at or past scheduled time of departure will they close the gate and dispatch the flight. One time at the check-in counter I was told my 5 PM flight would leave at 7 PM instead. So I left the terminal to have dinner elsewhere (the airport restaurants charge too much for such awful food). Unfortunately, the girl at the counter had given me the wrong time. The revised departure time was in fact 6 PM.
When 6 PM came around my cellphone rang. The station manager was calling me, asking whether I would be boarding because they were about to close the gates. I told him I was told the flight would depart at 7. He acknowledged the mistake and told me I would be accommodated on the next flight, and I was. I was angry as heck at that stupid mistake and felt like suing the airline for all the anxiety caused.
But the point I'm trying to make here is that the airline will exert a reasonable amount of effort to make sure the passengers don't miss their flights. Even to the point of calling me up on my cellphone (probably because they knew they'd screwed up).