42-hour delay hits sunseekers
Rebecca Camber
HALF-TERM holidaymakers faced misery at Manchester Airport at the weekend after a flight was delayed for 42 hours.
Many families hoping for winter sunshine turned up at the bmi check-in desk hours before take-off and were told that their plane to the US was cancelled and there were no spare aircraft.
The airline's transatlantic service was plunged into chaos when a flight from Barbados was delayed for 42 hours due to technical problems.
The setback forced airline bosses to cancel a later flight from Manchester to Washington because its passengers had been due to fly on the delayed plane.
Eighty passengers were affected, including the headmaster of William Hulme's Grammar School, south Manchester, Stephen Patriarca. He has demanded a review of bmi's transatlantic service. He cancelled his holiday in Florida.
He said: "Customer services were closed for the weekend. I think bmi are overstretching themselves. They don't have enough aircraft to be flexible if there are problems. I've had a five-hour delay on the same flight before because of technical problems."
Problems
He had booked a £1,500 holiday and had been looking forward to sunning himself on the beach and meeting friends.
He cancelled - and faces a week at home in Oldham - after he was told that he would have to wait at least 24 hours for a flight to Washington and then take a connecting flight to Miami.
Twenty-four hours after he was due to fly, Mr Patriarca was offered another flight to America, which involved a five-hour wait in Chicago, but he was so fed up that he turned it down.
He said: "You only get a week for half-term so if you lose a day or a day-and-a-half in delays it's not worth going all that way. There were lots of young families in the same position."
The problems began when the bmi flight from Barbados, due in Manchester at 6am on Saturday was delayed until 12.10am today. The same plane was to be used for a noon flight from Manchester to Washington on Saturday.
A bmi spokesman said: "All passengers have been offered alternative flights to America and the plane grounded in Barbados is on its way back. We apologise for any delay."
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