Staraviation
Interested to read the various replies. I'm pleased to see that Excel seems to be taking the problems onboard, especially if they withdraw from longhaul and replace the 737-400's with 800's next year.
My main worry is that with such a bad press for Excel longhaul that passengers would be loath to spend money on such flights in 2006 if they can't be assured by the tour operators of a better holiday than some are having to endure this year. It really is putting the airports long-haul charter plans at risk when the press is full of "epic delay and poor pax treatment" stories.
By the way, what is happening to the Helios flights, are they still using their own aircraft or wet-leasing?