SNOW continued to disrupt islanders’ travel plans yesterday when hundreds were left stranded at Gatwick Airport.
The Sussex airport was closed shortly after 3pm for seven hours while workers tried to clear the runway.
Some flights were able to take off last night, but none of those was to the Channel Islands.
Airport director Colin Le Ray said there had been other disruptions, but Gatwick was the most significant.
‘Nothing flew out or in from Gatwick from 2pm yesterday, so the pressure is on today to clear those passengers stranded,’ he said.
‘There were some disruptions to Southampton flights but we were able to get one flight there and back yesterday evening, so the aircraft was in the island and went off as normal this morning.
‘The Manchester flights operated as well last night.’
There were also delays to flights to and from Stansted last night.
Mr Le Ray said airlines were working hard to get all islanders who had been affected by cancellations on alternative flights.
Guernsey Press photographer Adrian Miller was caught up in Manchester flight cancellations on Sunday evening. He had been in Liverpool visiting family and was due to travel on the 7.10pm flight back to Guernsey.
After being delayed by a mechanical fault on one train to the airport, and signal failure on a second, he thought he would miss his flight.
‘I got to the airport and as far as I knew it was all OK,’ he said. ‘But then we were told the flight was going to leave at 9pm. We went through security and waited for ages. It said the gate was going to open at 8.40pm but we were still waiting at 9.30pm. Everybody was getting a bit fed up.’
Mr Miller said they got on the plane while they waited for the de-icer but were warned that they might not get out, with Manchester’s runway closed and with Guernsey Airport due to close at 10pm. They were told that the runway would reopen at 10.30pm, but then staff told them that the flight would be cancelled as Guernsey would not be open. However, before everybody had the chance to leave, the captain announced that the plane would go, as long as it left no later than 10.50pm as the airport was staying open until midnight.
‘Aurigny were really good. There were a few people that were a bit stroppy, but I felt like cheering when we set off.’
Article posted on 22nd December, 2009 - 2.29pm
6 Article Comments
There it happened
a flybe flight, wheels out ,preparing to land at gatwick airport. captain too afraid to land, icy conditions, so no alternative airport in the UK and back to Guernsey. very funny that 5 minutes later Aurigny had the quality to land whilst Flybe did not.
Missed my connection, with my 4 and 6 year old sons and their granny. Interstingly not even an apology from flybe…..changing my tickets and a hotel stay and 850 pounds later, finally at my destination…….. having had no apology I lost obviously any belief that flybe compensates (at least financially)….
so nice to hide behind little letters in your booking and so not nice to show no compassion or at least understanding…..I am still really sad about it.
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never fly flybe – I can understand your annoyance however regrettable though your situation is, passenger safety is paramount and airline pilots are trained to make decisions based on this.
The Flybe pilot was doing his/her job and evidently didn’t think that the runway was safe enough to land on. If he/she had carried on regardless and ended up crashing the plane you wouldn’t be here to make your comments. The Aurigny pilot evidently assessed the situation and concluded differently – we don’t know the reasons why – perhaps he/she was more experienced, or the aircraft type made a difference – I don’t know. Nevertheless, your comment about Aurigny would have been slightly different if their flight had skidded off the runway, crashed and ended up in loss of life.
As for compensation – I assume Flybe put you on a different flight free of charge? I don’t really see why they should pay for anything else, as the weather was outside their control. I doubt Aurigny would have coughed out £850 in a similar situation.
Perhaps when you’ve calmed down a little you might look at this a little more objectively.
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Hi Paul,
thank you for your comment. Obviously I was calm enought to sit down and share my experience.
Your opinion matters, regrettably it did not (yet) explain the situation any better to me, I did learn however this was the very only plane making this decision , even the same airplane types landed normally. besides this point Flybe did not bring me to my destination in time, thank God for the European Union setting rules here, and we will claim our penalty charge soon…or a late apology of Flybe should pop up that would be nice for ruining our x-mas.
p.s. are you perhaps working for Flybe? or just not an Aurigny heart ( i gave our own airliner a huge compliment, liek you said either pilotskills of plane choice ;)
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Hi Never Fly Flybe
I can confirm for the record that I neither work for Flybe, or have an “Aurigny heart” as you put it :-)
My personal preference of airline is Flybe, as I haven’t had any major issues with them in a number of years. They have also historically given me better service and better value than Aurigny. Again, that’s my personal experience – I am well aware it’s not everyone’s.
Your point about that flight being the only plane not to land is interesting – should that have been the case I can understand your annoyance. In defence of the pilot of your flight though, to use the reason “all my friends have managed it” as justification for doing something they consider unwise/unsafe might be OK for the school playground dare; it’s probably not such a good idea in the cockpit of a passenger aircraft!
Nevertheless, I do hope you get the compensation your are entitled to by law as soon as possible….and I wish you a Happy New Year! :-)
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FLBE ARE THE WORST AIRLINE FOR MANY REASONS. They sress me out to such a point that i will not fly with them. They are the biggest rip off merchents ever.
my sister just told me they have put the price of there baggage up
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Thank you for your reply, and a happy new year to you too!
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