A heavy snowfall leave the connections with the United Kingdom Under minimum. During this Monday, all means of transport have suffered incidents, with a multitude of delays or even cancellations both in airports such as highways and railways. Full normality is not expected to resume for a few days. As a consequence, the spanish tourists that they had chosen London as a destination to spend the December bridge they remain trapped, without answers and without a return ticket.
It was all laughter and pictures from a Christmas movie until the temporary claimed its place in the images. The snow clogged air traffic, the runways of the main airports they remain closed and the transport strike scheduled for the next few days threatens to extend the British stay of the retained travelers. In Gatwick Y heathrow, the two largest airports in the country, delays are considerable. In stansted, circulation is directly paralyzed. Total, more than 50 flights have been canceled since the weather adversities slipped into English territory.
Despair and outrage make up the cocktail most people drink from. affected passengers. Criticism of the treatment of airlines, both British and Spanish, is unanimous. Almost all the seats for the next flights are taken. The fastest option forces tourists to pass three or four nights, at best, on English soil. Accommodation costs are out of their pockets and, given the circumstances, not everyone is confident in the certainty of reimbursements.
javier moreno He had traveled with his partner to spend a few days on vacation in London. Your flight, operated by Iberia Express, should have landed this Sunday back in Madrid. “We began to see that every five minutes it was delayed more, until they gave notice that it was canceled“says the passenger. “As soon as we leave the terminal, they tell us that many of us are affected and that the company is not responsible, that we look for life“, the Mint.
According to passengers, airlines are not responsible for accommodation, transportation or meals
The airline It has taken 16 hours to give them a broader response, but the result is, if possible, even worse: two seats on a flight scheduled for Tuesday, December 20, almost ten days later. The nine hotel nights, which are around 1,000 euros on these dates, are compensated with a maximum of 100 euros per traveler. Ultimately, the customer pays. So much Javier as his partner, who had to go to their respective jobs this week, have declined the alternative and they will return by bus to Paristo then catch a plane that will definitely bring them to Spain.
Sandrawho also had to have returned this Sunday to Minorca, has had the same problem. “We narrowly managed a flight with a stopover to travel this Tuesday, but we still have no way of getting to the airport, because tomorrow begins a public transport strike that complicates everything even more”, explains the Spaniard, who enjoyed the Constitution bridge in the British country.
“We spent the night in line, without receiving food or a bottle of water”
Something similar has happened to Christinawho spent three hours at the airport in stansted, with uncertainty as the only ally. She should have caught the plane back to Madrid this Sunday at 7:50 p.m., but after three hours watching the snow fall, he received the final communication: flight cancelled. “We all ran to the counter, we spent the night queuingthey have attended us at 10:00 in the morning and nobody has offered us food or water”, the passenger ugly. “They offered us another flight for next Saturday, but nobody paid us for the extra week in London“concludes Cristina, who has opted for cancel the ticketsthe refund of which you are supposed to be able to claim, and buy new ones for a couple of days.
Impact on several Spanish airports
Several Spanish airportssuch as those of A Coruña, Santiago de Compostela or Las Palmas de Gran Canaria have suffered delays due to incidents generated in the United Kingdom. “The links with London They accumulate more than four hours of delay because the planes based there have not been able to return last night,” explained the first of the Galician airports on its Twitter account.
Chela Santallawho planned to travel this Monday at noon from Santiago de Compostela to the Canary Islands, it takes more than eight hours wasted in the airport. “At 5:00 p.m. they told me that the flight that should have taken off at 1:30 p.m. suffered delays,” says the Galician. The lack of news and the mismanagement of the accident cause nervousness to abound in the terminal. The problem, a flight from London and operated by ryanair that it had to have landed on Sunday night in Santiago. That plane has not been able to travel and it is not known when it will be able to do so. The solution offered by the airline, for now, are a few tickets to fly the next day. Vouchers for accommodation, meals and dinners are like information, “totally null“.
