Shannon Airport has again apologised for problems experienced by people trying to book its special Santa Flights and has said booking for the remaining seats will reopen on Wednesday.
“We are pleased to announce that Santa Flights will be available to book online via our Shannon Airport website from midday, Wednesday, December 3,” a spokesperson for the airport stated.
“We are really sorry for the problems experienced last week in booking the flights. We are really keen to get it right and are finalising new booking arrangements. We are conscious of the demand and we want to ensure that as many families as possible will have the opportunity to book flights. We would like to sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused and thank you once again for your patience while we are working to rectify the situation,” he continued.
Booking for the flights opened at 2pm on Friday but many parents were left disappointed as demand caused the booking system to crash. Initial problems on the Shannon Airport website resulted in an announcement on the its Facebook page that bookings could be made instead on the Shannon Heritage site. There were then technical difficulties with this system.
Last year was the first year of the Santa Flights initiative which offers children and families the chance to fly from the airport with Santa transferring from his sleigh to board the aircraft some 15,000ft above sea-level during the 40 minute journeys.
While the flights are free again this year, a donation of €10 to charity is necessary to complete each booking.
Ten flights are due to take off over the two days in December carrying almost 1,900 passengers. Eighty of those seats are set aside for Clare Crusaders and St. Gabriel’s School in Limerick, who are also the beneficiaries of the charitable donations.