Dear Sir,

On the morning of December 17, I received an e-mail alert from Delta saying my 1pm JFK flight was delayed five hours. OK, weather happens.

During the afternoon, I received several further alerts pushing the departure back to 9.22pm.

Based on those updates, I arrived at 7pm at the airport, which was deserted, save for several Delta passengers sitting near the check-in area.

A couple said they were told an hour before that no one could go through until the flight from JFK was confirmed as departed.

Seemed reasonable. I waited an hour and still no Delta staff arrived. The number of waiting passengers grew and now included a family with an infant child. Another 30 minutes passed and off in the distance I saw a lady in a Delta uniform walking towards the arrivals area. I called out and informed her that we were Delta passengers waiting to check in.

Without stopping, she called back to say that none of us were getting out and to go to the office. And off she went without skipping a beat. Surely, I misheard her.

I found the Delta office and two staff came to the door and informed me that because US immigration staff had all left the airport at 4pm, no one could get through.

Couldn’t you have informed us of this deadline in one of the numerous e-mails you sent out, I asked.

It’s a local rule, I was told.

Couldn’t you have walked the 20 yards from your office to the check-in desk to inform your customers of this during the past two hours, I asked.

It’s airport operations. It’s US immigration. Everyone else was to blame, apparently.

You have abandoned passengers, including a family, sitting just around the corner who don’t know they are not leaving tonight and have to go and find hotels at 8.30 at night, I explained.

Are you going to go and speak to them, I asked.

There was no response and the door was closed. I was, and am, speechless, that these Delta representatives, who work in a service industry, could have such utter disregard for the very customers on whom their employment relies.

What a horrible stain on an otherwise wonderful visit. K FLOWERY, Long Island, New York