Some air passengers are in disarray tonight after Aer Lingus canceled several flights to and from Dublin Airport.
the company apologized and said that a Covid arose among staff and strikes by air traffic control in France, Italy and Spain, caused “buffers” to fail.
Earlier tonight, a flight from Dublin to Faro, along with a flight to Split in Croatia, was canceled by the airline, along with arrivals from London Heathrow and Amsterdam.
Passengers revealed their frustration online with one person saying their expensive family holiday, which was booked three years ago, had been canceled, leaving their children “upset”.
The passenger said: “So many feelings I want to share, but I thought it was best that I should be the professional person.
“Three years of waiting, two years of planning, € 6,000 Faro holiday, three upset children, woman in tears, two queues are not going anywhere.
“Long drive home. Start refund / proof and the travel agent.”
Aer Lingus issues a statement to independent.ie setting out how Covid cases have affected staff members, along with the air traffic control strikes, which Ryanair has already said it expects to affect flights.
“Aer Lingus expected demand for travel to return once Covid restrictions were removed and built into appropriate buffers in our plans to deal with a reasonable level of additional disruption,” the statement said.
“This weekend, systemic pressure from ATC strikes, and ongoing issues at airports and among third-party providers, unfortunately required the cancellation of some flights.
“This pressure on the system has been exacerbated by an increase in Covid cases among our own teams over the past number of days.
“Where cancellations have taken place, Aer Lingus has tried to accommodate disrupted passengers on the next available alternative service.
Aer Lingus would like to apologize to the affected customers, and shared details about customers ‘rights, the airlines’ obligations under Regulation (EC) 261/2004 which can be found here: www.aerlingus.com/support/legal/ regulation.”
One woman tweeted that there was a “shameful lack of communication that canceled our flight from Paris to Dublin tonight.”
Ryanair said at the weekend that it was predicting disruptions, mostly in France, Italy and Spain, due to a two-day strike at the French Air Traffic Control Center in Marseille.