The Irish Times

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Knock requests meeting over stranded flights

Lorna Siggins and Tom Shiel

Ireland West Airport Knock says it has sought an urgent meeting with Flyglobespan airline about difficulties with its transatlantic service, after 500 passengers were stranded at three airports over the past five days.

Arrangements were being made last night to repatriate passengers delayed at JFK airport, New York, since last Thursday, and to fly out 146 US-bound passengers who had been booked to leave Knock on Sunday. However, the majority of the 240 passengers grounded at JFK airport were en route home on other carriers, many travelling at their own expense.

"We're terribly disappointed that passengers had this experience," Ireland West Airport chief executive Liam Scollan said.

The problems began when lightning struck an aircraft landing at JFK last Thursday, and were compounded by the weekend's security alert at Glasgow airport. Knock airport provided hotel accommodation on Sunday night for 146 people who had been booked to fly out to New York earlier in the day, but who have still not got away.

The new transatlantic services between Liverpool, Knock and New York and Glasgow, Knock and Boston had experienced several technical difficulties before the weekend's catalogue of events, Mr Scollan said.

"We met with the airline last week to iron out some operational issues, and once we have this situation resolved we will be meeting again," he said.

The airline had several key issues to sort out, including providing sufficient back-up aircraft, and securing more suitable slot times at JFK New York, Mr Scollan said. "However, it did open up the transatlantic option for us, and we want to work with the company," he said.

Anger, tiredness and frustration were expressed yesterday by some of the passengers stranded at Knock, New York and Boston.

"It's been a pure nightmare," said Paul Walsh, brother of pop impresario Louis, who was delayed at JFK. "We were getting no information. We were virtually living in the airport. It was awful, the worst ever."

Mr Walsh switched with five family members to Delta Airlines and flew home to Shannon when the Flyglobespan Boeing 757 showed no signs of taking off from JFK. Mr Walsh, who has a flooring business in north America, said that about 70 others from Ireland and the Liverpool area had chosen the Delta option despite the cost.

Majella Considine, and her daughter, Amy, from Dunshaughlin, Co Meath, also flew home via Shannon with Delta and said she never was as relieved to be back on Irish soil again. Some young people waiting for the return flight were practically destitute, she said.

On Saturday night everybody was asked to board and the plane taxied out on the runway. "It was the most deflating thing ever when the plane taxied back in again. The pilot said another technical difficulty had occurred and the flight was again cancelled."

Some passengers formed an action group to demand "a basic level of human rights" from ground handlers, according to Ms Considine. One male passenger became ill after the flight home on Saturday night was cancelled, and was taken to hospital.

Chris and Caroline Brannigan were caught in Mayo when Sunday's flight to New York was cancelled. Mr Brannigan was unenthusiastic about using Flyglobespan again.

767s
 

What routes are they doing for Air India?

I feel that Flyglobespan have ruined the Transatlantic routes from Knock. Technical problems can happen to anyone and so can disruptions caused by security issues but they have really made no attempt to try and get another aircraft in place since then.
These are brand new routes out of Knock and you need to make a special effort in order to get an established reputation if people are going to leave other carriers and airports to try you out.
There has been so much negetive publicity from this so early into the program i can't really see the routes recovering form it. It seems a bit like Flyglobespan don't want to operate there anymore.

Knock airport will find it hard to find another carrier to operate to NYC and Bos when Flyglobespan pull the plug, and even if they do the public will be very sceptical about flying transatlintic into the airport again.

Flights will resume tonight to JFK from NOC and usual flight to BOS will go out tomorrow from GLA as per website update. The schedule is getting back on track, but still delays to the YHM flight.

GSM Scot
 

If this is the case, how come the s*its have cancelled the Thursday & Friday service GLA - BOS from August to October, citing poor bookings? Really screwed my Boston trip for meetings and hotel bookings, - not even an option to cancel - hiding behind these T & C's!

No wonder their long haul routes are under booked - their marketing / adverts is pants. Correct me here, but did they not do something similar with their Las Vegas route - which nobody knew about.

There is a lot of hope and goodwill in Scotland for GSM to be a success, and short haul, it is pretty good - if they offered F.F. miles, i'd have plenty, but somebody in the long haul dept, needs their butt kicked before they get an even worse reputation. I really don't want to have to start going back through LHR / LGW to get to the States, so come on GSM - get your act together! The press only report on the bad news about airlines, and that is what the public reads - give a dog a bad name etc.

According to media reports GSM have now admitted that there are to be no JFK flights this winter.

Nothing confirmed as yet in the media about the Boston flights even though the dates, as with the JFK flights, available on the GSM website only goes up until the end of October.

So thats the same number that they're operating this summer by the looks of things!! :rolleyes:

from somebody that works at GLA, can i just say that the biggest problem GSM are having isn't technical problems or security issues rather it is the lack of pilots to fly the equipment as i understand that quite a lot of them have resigned!!:uhoh:

A couple of the BA guys who chose the GSM route instead of FLYBE/BACON only lasted about a month!!!

I was personally on the flight deck of a GSM aircraft trying to give a pilot a loadsheet whilst he was busy writing out his resignation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Had to laugh this morning when i walked past a GSM gate and overheard one of the gate agents tell a pax that their delayed flight would leave when"they found a captain to fly it"!!!!!!!!Think it was the GSM111 GLA-AGP.

I don't really believe that having back-up aircraft is going to alleviate this mob's problems which are a bit more deep-rooted than what most people see on a daily basis in the media or on arrival/departure boards no matter what pr people try to feed the public!!!

General note: If you can't hold up your end of the debate without a personal attack you will find your posts missing and eventually, your ability to access this site removed as well.

While this applies to all, those with recently deleted posts might give it particular thought before you hit the send key next time.

Cheers,
The Mods

P.S. A few passenger posts were moved to the passenger/SLF forum.

There has been a huge amount of negative press in Ireland about Globespan, I wonder if they can recover their image again?

Stranded passengers to take legal action

Sean O'Driscoll in New York

A group of passengers who were left stranded in New York by flyglobespan airline are to take legal action against the company, an attorney representing the group has said.

Des O'Carroll, an Irish-born New York attorney who was one of the passengers stranded for days at JFK airport, said that he intends to begin legal proceedings later this week. He said that he had spoken to many passengers who were due to fly from JFK to Knock, Co Mayo last Thursday and said none had any confidence left in the company.

Flyglobespan has said that it is to fly passengers to Ireland tonight, the first such flight in a week. Most of the people on that flight will be passengers who were unable to board last Sunday night.

Many people made their way back to Ireland with other airlines since a Boeing 757 aircraft developed technical problems at JFK on Thursday.

Flyglobespan cancelled yesterday's flights between Knock and JFK to allow engineers continue to work on the grounded aircraft in New York. The company said it was hopeful that all services between Ireland West Airport Knock and JFK would be back to normal by tomorrow.

Mr O'Carroll, who paid for a separate flight home with Delta Airlines, said that he had some matters to attend to in Dublin over the next two days and would then begin the lawsuit on behalf of flyglobespan passengers.

Flyglobespan spokesman Crawford Brankin said that he had not yet heard about the lawsuit, but said he understood passengers' anger.

"Basically, we can well understand people's anger, but we have apologised, put people up in hotels and repatriated them as best we could." On the lawsuit, he said he understood that people "must do as they see fit".

He said that the plane that was grounded last Thursday evening because of technical problems would be flying tonight and that the company had flown four engineers in from the UK to solve the problem.

The airline cancelled yesterday's flights between Knock and JFK to allow engineers continue to work on the grounded aircraft in New York .

The company says it is hopeful that all services between Ireland West Airport and JFK will be back to normal by tomorrow.

A group of 146 passengers due to travel with the airline from Knock to New York on Sunday finally got away with other airlines from Shannon and Dublin on Monday. The plane on which they were scheduled to travel is the one grounded by the engineering difficulty in JFK.

as one of the many passengers abandoned at jfk on the 2/3 july,and having spent several hundred pounds getting myself back to the uk!:\
is there anyone out there organizing a joint action or must i go it alone?:confused:

flyglobespan
 

I was due to fly out of JFK on Friday 29th July with Flyglobespan.
By Sunday and still no sign of them providing any alternative I bought my own flights back.
They have said they will only give me a refund on the flight that I canceled - no other compensation.
People intending to fly out on Saturday were told that the reason was the terrorism incidents in UK so that they were not even provided with a hotel (they had to wait until 11pm to be given this news) Many slept on the floor of the airport. It was with great effort that people with children were eventually given accommodation.
The treatment and non-communication by FGS was shocking they had no representative on the ground.

Wasn't the EU passengers charter "supposed" to stop all this :rolleyes:

EU Charter
 

Does this cover flightsoriginating from outside the EU? If it does not then this could be why GSM chose to treat pax so badley as the flight would be originating from JFK.

Has GSM chosen to send the customer care handbook out to India with those 2 767s?

Another fine day at the ranch, I see - YHM-SNN-DUB delayed by 22 hours due to not having any mainwheels in Hamilton to change one which was needed.

I gather Globespan's own 757 is being punted around from November by the leasing company.

Denied boarding and cancellation are covered by Article 17 of Regulation [EC]261/2004
The regulation applies to all flights operating from an EU airport and to flights operating to EU airports from outside the EU when operated by an EU airline.
This applies to all flights including charters.
There are however getout clauses for the airlines, known as extraordinary circumstances.
Recital 14 cites five potential examples of extraordinary circumstances, they are

Political instability
Meteorological conditions incompatible with the operation of the flight
security
unexpected flight safety shortcomings
strikes

Most airlines are pretty quick at hiding behind one of these.


Hen Ddraig

Time to spare, go by air

I can tell you that everyone at FGS HQ are trying very hard to sort out the problems mentioned. Firstly FGS did try and charter an aircraft to bring stranded pax back from JFK but at this time of year there is just nothing available but try they did. Secondly I can tell you the problem JM encountered is not one that I have seen or even heard about in over 30 years in aircraft maintenance and indeed it is something that the aircraft design should not have allowed to happen that the aircraft is flying even now is a testament to Swissport(in JFK) and the 2 FGS Engineers (FM & DF well done guys) a lot of logistic support and the dogged attitude of the forementioned. I have heard and read all the guff about this incident but really all it boiled down to was a snag that could never have been foreseen and which Boeing or RR themselves could not fathom or indeed offer any solution to.

Matkat:

That is rubbish. Yes the technical problem may have been unusual, but that does not excuse why there were no GSM reps on the ground, either in JFK, or NOC, or LPL or anywhere else for that matter. It does not excuse why the stranded passengers were not put in HOTAC and looked after. It does not excuse why people cannot get through on the telephone lines to make a complaint or claim compensation. It does not excuse why people have their flight schedules changed/cancelled/intermediate stops introduced, chosen seats ignored, etc

They are reaping what they sow, and this is just one manifestation of the chronic underinvestment in infrastructure, and they way they view their passengers.

Also, you say they tried to charter an aircraft.....I simply do not believe you. They have never, ever, ever, sub chartered an aircraft before, and they will never do so in the future. The owner of the company absolutely, categorically will not do it....and they have had many multiple day delays before.

Quite simply, they are a disaster. I know, I work for them.

Its my understanding that when Monarchs A330 went tech at Sanford, they brought the pax back via XL airways. Why couldn't FGS do this? or another alternative, was every seat on alternative airlines filled from JFK? Not one single seat on any airline available?????

I imagine the CAA are starting to take a very close look at this outfit. With such a dismal OTP record (and other rumours) how long will they retain the AOC? I feel sorry for all the no doubt good people who try their best at GSM only to get royally screwed by those much further up the chain.

A4