Tech delay tale with a German LCC.
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Tech delay tale with a German LCC.
We often see tales of woe on these pages. To balance things out a little, yesterday I was on an Eurowings flight from HAM to DUS which incurred a 90 minute technical delay. Passengers were regularly kept informed of developments by EWG via the handling company ground staff. Once we boarded the Captain apologised and again fully briefed the passengers on the reasons for the delay and the outcome. Once airborne a sandwich and refreshments were provided free of charge as a token of compensation for the delay. All very professionally and courteously handled. Well done Eurowings.
[The reason for the delay, and we could all even laugh about it, was that upon his walk-around the captain spotted something odd on the rudder. He was unable to ascertain if it was some sort of damage or not. Maintenance personnel were called to make an assessment. Unfortunately it took some time to get the right equipment to the aircraft for an engineer to take a close look. Finally, close inspection revealed it was bird dropping (presumably a large bird)! It was cleaned and off we went! As the captain said, "better to be safe than sorry".]
[The reason for the delay, and we could all even laugh about it, was that upon his walk-around the captain spotted something odd on the rudder. He was unable to ascertain if it was some sort of damage or not. Maintenance personnel were called to make an assessment. Unfortunately it took some time to get the right equipment to the aircraft for an engineer to take a close look. Finally, close inspection revealed it was bird dropping (presumably a large bird)! It was cleaned and off we went! As the captain said, "better to be safe than sorry".]
Join Date: Mar 2004
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I've had much the same experience on Eurowings - again in Hamburg. Actually they weren't so good on keeping us updated (we were still in terminal, not onboard), but they found a spare plane (I guess being in Hamburg helped) and got us off with only about 40 mins delay - I had a connection in Zurich (to Geneva! - not in the air for very long) and I still made it. I was really impressed.
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We were at the gate (in the terminal) and frequently updated by the gate staff, who were themselves kept informed by Eurowings Ops and even the Captain himself. I think that waiting is psychologically less painful if one knows what is going on.
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Agreed, Hotel Tango. When I was still working I always tried to tell the passengers the truth. Much better than the fluffy stuff you sometimes hear.
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Maybe the EW crew in MAN should take a lesson from HAM.
Tried to fly MAN-(DUS)-HAM today, in the end I was some 5h late (first and rebooked flight delayed - no info whatsoever) and got a generous 5 GBP "refreshment" voucher for it.
PL on final flight said that the delay on this flight was because in HAM haven't been enough busses... right.
Tried to fly MAN-(DUS)-HAM today, in the end I was some 5h late (first and rebooked flight delayed - no info whatsoever) and got a generous 5 GBP "refreshment" voucher for it.
PL on final flight said that the delay on this flight was because in HAM haven't been enough busses... right.
