It has been an interesting week at Birmingham International Airport! On Friday I went to collect a relative, but on arrival, they called me to advise that the flight was being delayed by 2 hours for ‘technical reasons’.

They were airside, and could not find a representative of the airline. I decided that I would go to the airline desk to establish what was going on. En-route, I noticed that the arrival board showed the flight was on time! The first airline representative told me that the flight was on time, however, when I pointed out that this was clearly not the case, they advised that the flight was in fact delayed for ‘technical reasons’ and the plane had not yet left Birmingham. I asked what were the technical reasons; I was told that this information could not be given out! I then asked whether my relative would receive their flight delay rights under 261/2004. I was assured that they would.

I contacted my relative, to be told that they had been informed, not by airline staff, that the flight had left Birmingham! In addition, no-one had offered any of the delayed passengers any assistance whatsoever. Not deterred, I returned and asked to speak with the duty manager. When challenged as to why there was no representative airside, and why they were not being provided with care, she responded by stating that the EU Directive, 261/2004 was simply a set of Guidelines for the Airlines! In addition, despite the fact that it was obvious that the flight would be delayed by more than 2 hours, company policy stated that they had to wait for the 2 hours to expire before they gave the passengers any assistance under the Directive! I pointed out that the Directive was in fact law, to which she responded that she was advised by her senior management on those issues! She offered to speak to her counterpart at my relative’s departure point. She returned advising that the passengers were now being cared for (this was confirmed by my relative (they were given a measly £5 - a sandwich cost over £4!), however, I could hear the passengers angry exchanges with the airline representative in the background).

I then pressed her on the number of ‘technical’ difficulties experienced by this airlines aircraft. She confirmed that these were genuine technical difficulties, not simply a case of crew difficulties. Given that in 9 weeks of flights, 5 flights have suffered with technical difficulties, and the fact that it appears to be the airlines policy of not telling the air passengers the reasons behind the technical difficulty, it would seem appropriate to report the airline to the Safety Regulation Group of the CAA. It is all very well citing ‘technical’ reasons, but with so many arising, the question was asked, just how safe are these aircraft?

I had also noted that the airline was also failing to display notices at check-in summarising passengers rights under 261/2004 (I also noted that all but one airline was also failing to display such notices). The manager advised that they were at the printers! Compare this to Alicante Airport where such notices are displayed at check-in in 3 EU languages!

When I spoke with my relative, they were advised that the flight was in the air! I ent to the window and checked the board, the outward flight was still on the ground. As I gave this information, the airline representative was assuring the passengers that the flight was on the way! In fact it was a further 15 minutes before it finally took off!

Surely the powers to be at Birmingham Airport should be reviewing this situation, not just with this airline, but with others who operate in this way? After all, these experiences hardly enhance the travelling public’s experience of the airport itself!

In any event it was a poor show from this airline - a very late night for these passengers!

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 18th, 2008 at 10:11 pm and is filed under The Crows Nest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.