By akademiotoelektronik, 06/03/2023

DESPERATELY LOOKING FOR A PLANE SEAT: All the news on liberte-algerie.com

They are hovering at the airport in the hope of finding a place. Not only are the flights rare, but the sale of tickets is complicated because of the saturation of the Air Algérie site. The telephone number of its call center is no longer in service.

Between Algeria and France, there is the Mediterranean and the queuing markup at entrance No. 42d to Orly. The cordons constantly adjusted by the security agents separate two categories of Algerians. The lucky ones perfectly lined up in the queue, with families and luggage, follow one another in the terminal, in order to take the plane for Algiers. The others form a crowd of left-behinds, massed on the side, near the gantry . In the group of a few dozen individuals, there are old people exhausted with fatigue, younger men and women, who jostle and lose patience. Some boldly negotiate with the security agents to gain access to the lobby where the Air Algérie counter is located, while others desperately scrutinize the arrival of a company official with a waiting list on which they could bear their name. Since the partial opening of the borders and the resumption of flights between Paris and Algiers on June 1, Abdelkader 82, retired, goes to the airport practically twice a week: Tuesday and Thursday, days programming of Air Algérie flights to Algiers. On this Thursday, July 1, despite the heat and his hypertension, the old man remains up all morning in front of the terminal, on the lookout for information and possibly a plane seat. “I haven't been to Algeria since March 2020 when I used to go there at least three times a year. I have a house there and a piece of land that is no longer cultivated. God may have planned for me to die here in France, this country for which I have already given my health and my life”, complains the octogenarian, former militant of the French Federation of the FLN during the war of independence. . Near him, Ali, also retired, wonders how travelers about to leave were able to acquire tickets when he did not have the opportunity to change his, bought a year ago, before the start of the health crisis. “It's a mystery!”, he notes intrigued, specifying that a message notifying an error is systematically displayed when one wants to take or modify a reservation on the Air Algérie website and that, for elsewhere, the agency of the company is still closed in Paris. “It's not even worth phoning. The number is out of service”, completes Nassiba, who is desperately trying to get to Algiers, at the bedside of his sick brother. “I no longer take care of my children or my house. This ticket thing is driving me crazy. Even here, at the airport, no one wants to give us any explanations. We are despised. We are abandoned by the Algerian state which treats us as under-citizens”, denounces the young mother of a family. Around her, the crowd swells. She fidgets as time goes by. The flight to Algiers is scheduled for 1:55 p.m. and it is already noon. “Have mercy on us. Can't you see that some of us are very old and sick,” yells an old lady, leaning on a crutch, to an Air Algerie employee, who appears furtively at entrance 42d. Another, going out to pick up large parcels, is hailed from all sides, but he slips away, claiming not to work for the company. “There are end-of-life patients who want to be buried there. But we ignore their suffering. It's as if they were already dead," she said, very upset. His emotion further electrifies the atmosphere. Mohamed, who lost his brother in Algeria without being able to say goodbye to him, also had to leave the remains of his sister-in-law to leave, alone, in a coffin last March, is on the verge of exploding. "In Algeria, no one respects barrier gestures anymore, but it's up to us to pay the price of the Covid," he said exasperated. Mohamed wants at all costs to go to Algeria, for that he not only received the two doses of vaccine but says he is ready to buy a new ticket from a company other than Air Algérie, while the latter never reimbursed him for a previous one. reservation made in February 2020. Dalila and her three children were to return to Algiers on July 1. Miraculously, the mother of the family managed, a fortnight ago, to reach Air Algérie on the phone and to buy tickets for a departure from Paris Charles-de-Gaulle airport. But his flight was canceled at the last minute. “I was asked to come to Orly and try to put myself on a waiting list. But I can't do it,” she says, exhausted by a 4 a.m. alarm clock and her kids running around the trolley full of suitcases. Assia is in the same situation. She also camped at the entrance to the terminal with her luggage. “How can we talk about reopening the borders with two departures per week. Even repatriation flights were more numerous.There was one a day and people who came to the airport could easily register on the waiting lists”, underlines the disappointed young woman. Like many present, she explored all sorts of other means to return to Algeria. In vain. "We don't even have the possibility of leaving through Tunisia because of the closure of the land borders," she laments. In the ensuing discussions, everyone obviously compares their fate to that of other countries authorized to return home this summer, en masse and at low cost. "I had tears in my eyes watching my neighbors leave for the airport through the window," Assia says. In the queue, many families compete for place with Algerian travelers who arrived in groups. Leïla, her mother and her sister came from Brussels and are on the 1:55 p.m. flight. When asked how they bought their tickets when the Air Algérie sales site constantly displays a message notifying an error, the passengers reveal that they insisted on updating the reservation window several times. “We finally managed to buy tickets at 580 euros, but for one way only. Once in Algiers, we will certainly have to book the return with Air France”, explains Leïla. Akli also says he was able to find places on the Air Algérie site, after several tries. “I am going to Algeria to attend my sister's wedding. I will stay there ten days”, he says. Around 1 p.m., the check-in for the Air Algérie flight is over and with it the hope of Dalila and Assia to be on board. Exhausted by the journey that took them from Roissy to Orly, they went to take the bus to go home. Abdelkader intends, for his part, to return to the airport, as many times as it takes to find a place. “Maybe they will end up reopening the borders. Who knows ?" he said, but without too much conviction. flights. “My mother is very sick. She knows she is going to die and wants to be buried in Algeria,” says Hassina. With her mother's medical file in the bag, the young woman spies on the arrival of a manager who could help her buy a ticket. “We know very well how our country works. You always have to involve someone to get something. Among the travelers who have just taken the plane, some, I am sure, have used their knowledge to get seats”, she suggests.

From Paris: SAMIA LOKMANE-KHELIL