Aer Lingus passengers have complained of being left stranded without any information following a computer glitch in its booking facilities.
The airline’s booking system was down from 2.30pm on Saturday and problems persisted well into Sunday.
The widespread IT failure caused 51 flights to be cancelled on Saturday and a further four on Sunday, disrupting the travel plans of thousands of would-be passengers and leading to large queues forming at Dublin Airport.
Clive Jordan said he would never fly with the airline again, describing his experience as “excruciatingly wretched” when his flight from Dublin to Los Angeles was cancelled on Saturday evening.
Mr Jordan said staff did not know what to do on Saturday afternoon and passengers were given conflicting information. He accused the airline of giving out incorrect public information that all Aer Lingus transatlantic flights were flying albeit with delays when his flight to Los Angeles remained cancelled.
He described going “round and about in circles” and there were no staff in the airport providing accurate information. Neither could he contact Aer Lingus by phone or via social media.
Mr Jordan added that he had to leave the airport and get a hotel in the city centre which cost him €400 a night because of the Garth Brooks concerts. Four other families, some with young children, had to pay similar amounts.
He finally booked a Delta flight to Atlanta on Monday to get a connecting flight to Los Angeles and estimates that the total cost of the delay will be more than €2,500.
Mr Jordan said the fact that he missed his wife’s birthday and two of his children’s soccer matches was more significant to him than the costs of the 45-hour delay he experienced in Dublin. “The communication was zero. They literally told us to leave the airport and they would be in touch, but they weren’t.”
Neil Brannelly, who was on his way to Nice with his girlfriend, described the lack of support from Aer Lingus as “astounding”. He and his girlfriend arrived at the airport at 8.30am in advance of their 11.30am flight on Saturday morning.
At 9.45pm on Saturday evening, after waiting more than 13 hours in the airport, they were told their flights had been cancelled, and they had to leave the airport. DAA staff told them no rooms were available in Dublin and they would have to make their own way home.
“Of course it is not the staff’s fault when there’s an IT issue but the lack of support, both in information and finances, was astounding. We were left completely in the dark and had several more hours than necessary wasted on a pipe dream of the flight taking off,” he said.
He said the first they heard about the cancellations was on RTÉ at 1.42pm on Saturday, but the information was not communicated in the airport until 30 minutes later.
“The staff asked all passengers to evacuate immediately. Beside us there was a 74-year-old American woman who had stayed in Louth the previous night due to a lack of available accommodation,” he said.
Mr Brannelly and his girlfriend, Rachel Harold, said they eventually booked another flight to Nice on Monday morning. “We now go into our holidays massively out of pocket with seemingly a battle ahead to get back the money we’re entitled to,” he said.
Amy Corr said she and other passengers had been left in Lanzarote when their flights were cancelled on Saturday morning. There were only 20 rooms available for 200 people and many passengers were elderly or small children.
“We booked another villa and tried to call them [Aer Lingus]. They said they had no flights until the 19th of September. We booked a flight with Ryanair for tomorrow and they also tripled the prices online yesterday,” she said.
Andrew Waring said he and his girlfriend were supposed to take an Aer Lingus flight to Heathrow at 11.15am on Saturday. They did not hear that their flight had been cancelled until 8pm that evening.
“There were around 60 people waiting, some with small children. It was only when one passenger got through to the helpline they were told at 7pm it had been cancelled at 5pm.”
He said they tried booking hotels but none had rooms available. “We got a coach to Belfast as I have family there but others were left entirely stranded,” he said.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald also became caught up in the chaos. She tweeted on Sunday night that she had been waiting for two hours at the baggage carousel for her bags after arriving on an Aer Lingus flight from San Francisco.
Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan said it was very important for the airline to resolve the issues quickly, which it had now done.
“This was a very unfortunate incident but I’m confident that the company will learn lessons from it. My concern was with the travelling public and [it’s important] they’re not inconvenienced in this way.”
Aer Lingus has issued a statement apologising for what it admitted had been “severe disruption”.
The airline added: “Customers impacted by Saturday’s disruption are being contacted and where possible rebooked on to the next available Aer Lingus flight. We have also added additional capacity and services on a number of our European routes today and tomorrow to accommodate customers impacted by the disruption.
“Customers who wish to apply for a refund or change their travel plans can do so free of charge through aerlingus.com, our social media channels or via our call centres.
“Hotel accommodation has been offered to our customers at most airports. Customers who secured their own accommodation will be reimbursed accordingly.”
