AN Ennis couple were left reeling on Tuesday when their flight from Shannon to Palma, Majorca was diverted to Dublin.
Rita McMahon and Frank Conway were due to depart Shannon on Tuesday afternoon just before 3pm. After it emerged on Monday evening that there would be flight disruption again due to volcanic ash, Ms McMahon contacted Gail Travel, Ennis, the agency where she had booked their holiday.
“I asked Gail Travel what should we do and they advised me to contact Shannon Airport, which I did. Information at Shannon Airport was that that flight would be going at some point in the day. Shortly after that, the travel agent rang back and advised me that we should get to the airport earlier than planned, which we did,” Ms McMahon explained.
They arrived at the airport at about 12.20pm on Tuesday and there was a queue at the check-in desk for Majorca. “We were travelling with JWT. There was a queue but there was no movement towards the desk at all,” she added.
She asked staff at the check-in desk what the situation regarding the flight was and was handed an information sheet stating that passengers may experience delays in the departure of flights due to volcanic ash. “Then there were rumblings in the queue that the flight wasn’t leaving from Shannon at all and that we were being bussed to Dublin,” Ms McMahon commented. She enquired at the customer desk if this was the case and was told that JWT were providing a coach to Dublin Airport and that the estimated departure time of the flight to Majorca would be 11pm.
“We were not happy. We were due to leave Shannon Airport at 2.55pm and now we were going to have to travel for hours by bus to Dublin and wait to leave at 11pm, that’s if the flight left at all. We were due to be in Palma after 6pm. I’m not a good bus traveller, so there’s no way I could have tolerated a bus trip from Dublin,” she added.
Ms McMahon contacted Gail Travel to tell them that she would not be travelling on the bus to Dublin Airport.
“I was advised to put this in writing but that Frank and I would be considered as no-shows for the flight and would be unlikely to get a refund. I feel that this is ridiculous. We were not no-shows. We booked to go on holiday from Shannon and not from Dublin,” she said.
Ms McMahon is now considering pursuing the matter as a consumer rights issue. “I know that the travel agent is only the middle person but my contract was with them. Furthermore, I booked to fly from Shannon Airport to Palma, and not to get a bus from Shannon to Dublin and then to fly to Palma. If I had wanted to travel to Dublin Airport, I would have had far more holiday options,” she commented.

Dark cloud looms over tourism in the Mid-West

SHANNON Airport closed at 5.30pm Wednesday evening due to the ash plume over Irish airspace and, at the time of writing, it is due to reopen at 1pm on Thursday.
A spokesperson for the airport said that around 17 flights would be affected, and approximately 2,500 passengers.
Shannon was also closed on Tuesday from 7am to 1pm and a number of services between Shannon and airports such as Heathrow, Gatwick, Dublin, Stansted and Newark were disrupted.
It is expected that while the ash plume will still be around on Thursday, it will probably be at a lesser concentration. The wind is expected to change and the plumes are set to be well away from Irish airspace by the weekend.
Michael Vaughan of the Shannon branch of the Irish Hotels Federation said that this week’s events were further bad news for an already embattled tourism sector.
“It’s just very discouraging. It’s the start of the season now and there is a lot of uncertainty. People in the industry are very worried. We’ve called a special meeting next week and we’re likely to have the biggest crowd since the time the Heathrow slots went a couple of years ago. There’s widespread concern and there’s an ongoing threat to the start of the summer season. It seems as if there’ll be another year of uncertainty and it’ll delay any recovery.”
Airlines such as Ryanair and Aer Lingus are putting updated information and advice on their websites for customers.
A number of other Irish airports were closed on Wednesday which saw several flights diverted to Shannon, including services from Brussels, Dusseldorf, Lisbon, London Heathrow, Wroclaw and Treviso.