Aer Lingus apologizes as cancellation of Cork flight leaves 150 passengers stranded in Palma

Angry passengers called local radio stations this morning to describe scenes of chaos at the Spanish island’s airport and criticize the airline for its lack of information and communication.

One caller, Damien, told The Opinion Line on Cork’s 96FM that stranded passengers did not have access to hotel accommodation and had to spend the night at the airport without access to food or sufficient supplies. ‘water.

He said the flight was scheduled to leave Palma at 11 p.m., but it was 3 a.m. before he received a confirmation email from the airline saying the flight had been canceled.

He said passengers were informed the airline could not find hotel accommodation and advised them to find their own accommodation, saying they would be refunded. He said people were very angry with the way the situation had been handled.

“There are people with young children and elderly people who need care and no one can give us information at the airport,” he said. “We didn’t want to leave the airport and walk the streets of Palma at that time of the morning.

How can you leave people without information? It’s a shame. Shame on Aer Lingus.

In a statement released this lunchtime, Aer Lingus, which faces industrial action next week, said last night’s cancellation of the Cork-Palma flight was inevitable. And he confirmed that a replacement flight had been arranged for Thursday evening.

“Due to weather conditions upon arrival in Palma yesterday (Wednesday), two planes had to be inspected and were inevitably grounded at the airport,” a spokesperson said.

“This forced the passengers to stay in Palma overnight.

“Passengers have been offered hotel accommodation and/or a refund for hotel accommodation while waiting for their return flight which is rescheduled for later today.

“This then resulted in our Cork-Amsterdam service being disrupted this morning due to aircraft unavailability.

“All Cork customers have been rebooked on flights at a later time or date and/or offered refunds. Aer Lingus apologizes for this disruption.

Some passengers have no spare cash to pay for their hotels or flights home, while others are now frantically trying to get seats on flights with other airlines, with some booking flights to Barcelona, then towards Dublin. But it could be tomorrow before some can leave the island.

The cancellation of this Palma-Cork flight has had a knock-on effect on Aer Lingus’ schedule from Cork Airport today, with both a flight to Amsterdam and its return flight cancelled.

In a statement, Cork Airport confirmed that Aer Lingus EI861 from Palma de Mallorca to Cork, which was due to arrive at 1.05am on Thursday, had been canceled for “technical reasons”.

“As a result, Aer Lingus flights EI840 Cork to Amsterdam Schiphol and EI841 Amsterdam Schiphol to Cork, both of which were due to operate this morning, have been canceled for operational reasons.”