AIR TRAVEL:AER LINGUS has strenuously denied suggestions it allowed a number of half-empty planes depart to Ireland from London this week while large numbers of people were struggling to get home because of cancellations.
A tour operator based in Dublin said it had 50 Ireland-bound customers stranded in hotels in London on Wednesday night while at least one Aer Lingus flight left Heathrow only half full.
A spokesman for the Travel Department said the absence of any incentives for passengers to cancel flights if they decided not to fly had meant planes were showing up on computer systems as being fully booked despite the fact that seats were available.
“It would be very easy for all airlines to contact passengers booked on flights during a crisis like this and offer them a full refund plus a voucher if they voluntarily surrendered their tickets,” said Paul Hackett of the Travel Department.
“There are plenty of people who would willingly cancel, and airlines could use the extra capacity to get people home.”
A spokesman for Aer Lingus conceded that one plane had departed Heathrow late on Wednesday night with a significant number of empty seats, but said by the time it was granted a slot for departure there were no passengers intending to fly to Ireland left in the terminal.
“We have been operating an extensive stand-by system this week, and any passenger who approached our desks with a booking was put on the next available flight,” said the airline’s communications manager Declan Kearney.
He said a flight which was due to leave Heathrow at 8.45pm was not able to depart until after midnight, and when staff saw the number of empty seats on the plane they looked for anyone intending to travel anywhere on the island of Ireland.
“They even went through the marquees which have been set up at the airport with loud hailers looking for any passengers who wanted to travel to Ireland.”
None came forward so the plane ended up leaving with almost 50 per cent of the seats empty.
Mr Kearney said the airline was doing all it possibly could to get as many people home for Christmas. Mr Hackett said that while the airline should be commended for doing all it could to fill the plane, airlines needed to adopt a more strategic approach to incentivise people to cancel flights and not rely on a stand-by system which was of little use to people who were asked to vacate the terminal because they had no booking.
