Prestwick Airport bound holidaymakers stranded for a third day after flight cancelled
24.07.07
Hundreds of Scottish holidaymakers waiting for a flight to Prestwick Airport have spent a third day stranded in the Canary Islands with no immediate prospect of returning home. The passengers have been stuck on Gran Canaria since Saturday after a holiday company's only plane developed a major technical problem and was banned from flying. A further 165 people were stranded in Alicante, Spain, as a result of the same disruption.
The holidaymakers are booked with tour operator Seguro Holidays, who cancelled all flights to and from Prestwick Airport over the weekend, leaving more than 1300 passengers with lengthy delays. Hundreds had to spend the night at airport hotels in Scotland and abroad as they waited to discover whether their flights would take off.
The tour operator has managed to charter replacement planes for some routes yesterday, with flights for Faro and Alicante taking off. However, the company has not managed to find a plane to make the two flights to Las Palmas or a further one to Alicante. And the 330 passengers who were due to fly to Las Palmas from Prestwick on Saturday have been given a refund for their cancelled holiday after suffering a 51 hour delay.
The problem plane was also supposed to bring back the holidaymakers from Las Palmas to Prestwick, and Seguro was finalising plans last night to hire a jumbo jet to fly home the 330 passengers stranded in Las Palmas. A further 165 passengers will have to spend a second extra night in Alicante after their plane home was cancelled yesterday.
Although one plane did leave for Alicante yesterday, Seguro Holidays was forced to cancel the 19:00 flight from Prestwick last night after a replacement plane could not be found. The 165 passengers who were due to fly from Prestwick last night have been given a full refund, the company said.
The tour operator has now chartered a plane to bring passengers home from Alicante this morning, around 36 hours after they were due to return home. Richard Burke, managing director of Seguro, said: 'We are not sure what is happening about the people in Las Palmas at the moment, though we are doing all we can to get them home. Those staying in self-catering accommodation have been given money for food and drink and our reps are visiting them regularly. It is with our deepest regret that we had to cancel the flights to Las Palmas but it is something that we can't control, as it is a technical fault with the plane.'
Seguro's only plane, chartered from another company, has had its licence suspended due to a problem with its navigation system. The firm is confident replacements will be found allowing flights to Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Majorca later this week.
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