28.08.05
Passengers on an Excel Airways flight to Egypt suffered a 33 hour delay over the weekend, meaning more business for a manchester airport hotel at an airlines expense. The passengers should have flown to Hurghada at 09:20 on Friday, but didn't leave until after 18:00 on Saturday.
Three hundred holidaymakers were stranded at Manchester airport and an airport hotel for 33 hours - almost a day and a half - after their flight was postponed by Excel on Friday. The airline dogged by a summer of delays - it had two 24 hour plus delays on Thursday and Friday at Newcastle too.
The latest delay at Manchester is one in a series to hit Excel the airport this summer. In June, a flight to Kavala, Greece, was delayed for 7½ hours due to engine trouble, on 13.08 279 passengers were delayed 28 hours on a flight to Egypt, and on 19.08 there was a 33 hour delay for 232 passengers flying to Thessaloniki, Greece.
For much of the latest 33 hour delay Excel put the passenger in a manchester airport hotel. Passenger Stephen Robinson described the 33 hour delay: 'We arrived by car, parked at the airport parking and checked in as normal. Then at 08:30 we were told the flight would be delayed and more information would be available at 11:00, but this then became 11:30.'
'At 11:30 we were told we wouldn't be flying on Friday but would be put up in an airport hotel for the night. We were told we would be flying at 10:00 the next day. We were told to be down for breakfast at 07:00 and be ready to leave for the airport at 08:00.'
But when we went to breakfast the next morning we found letters on all of the tables saying there was no need to leave for the airport until 13:00 as we wouldn't be flying until 16:00.' Flight XLA2300 eventually took off just after 18:00 on Saturday.
Passengers criticised Excel for repeatedly giving them false hope over the departure time and failing to provide enough information - and were angry at losing almost two days of their holiday.
An Excel Airways spokesman said that the delay had been caused by a faulty windscreen on the plane. The company had done everything it could to fly passengers to their destination as soon as possible, she said.
'Originally, we hoped to have the windscreen fixed quite quickly and we did not think the delay would be quite so big. Unfortunately, this did not happen. Flight staff were given times for flying which then had to be changed and it was frustrating for everyone. When there are technical problems, these have a knock-on effect,' she added.
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