Budget Airline Panned Over Delays

Oct 28 2007 By Norman Silvester

Exclusive Official Flights Report Brands Flyglobespan Worst Budget Airline For Delays

BUDGET airline flyglobespan have been branded the worst in Scotland for delays.

Civil Aviation Authority statistics put them bottom of the league for budget airlines operating daily out of Glasgow and Edinburgh.

They lagged behind Ryanair, Easyjet, Jet2, Flybe, Bmi baby and Monarch.

Over the summer thousands of angry passengers faced delays of up to 18 hours with flyglobespan - Scotland's airline of the Year in 2005.

The fast-growing firm have 21 aircraft on more than 70 routes. CAA figures for July show:

One in six flights from Glasgow to Palma, Majorca, was delayed by three to six hours.

Return journeys were worse with one in five flights delayed by three to six hours.

One in four flights from Glasgow to Canada was more than three hours late and three in five at least one hour late.

Figures for the first six months of 2007 show passengers were delayed by an average of 40 minutes - compared to 17 minutes last year.

One in seven delayed flights was more than an hour late, compared to just one in 20 last year.

Fergus Maclean, 49, of Fort William, Invernessshire, was held up in Palma with his family.

The civil engineer said: "Our flight was due to depart at 7.30pm but it was after midnight when we finally took off. A five-hour delay on a two-and-a-halfhour flight is unacceptable.

"In June, a relative going to Palma was eight hours late and compensated with a £4 meal voucher.

"Given we live two-and-a-half hours away from Glasgow, any delay makes things worse." Last month 140 passengers - many families with young children - were stranded at Palma for 141/2 hours waiting for their flight to Edinburgh.

On July 20, hundreds were stranded in Palma, Barcelona and Ibiza for up to 18 hours on flights to Glasgow.

And a doctor returning to Glasgow last week was held up at Barcelona for four-and-a-half hours.

This month the airline were the first in the UK to have a licence for direct transatlantic flights suspended after investigations by aviation safety authorities.

Average delays on flyglobespan's Glasgow-Vancouver service during May were six hours.

Average delays on the Gatwick to Toronto service were nearly two hours. James Freemantle, of official watchdog the Air Transport Users Council, said: "All complaints will be investigated and taken up with the firm."

Website forum Skytrax claims in June they got more complaints about flyglobespan than other UK airlines put together.

Flyglobespan said: "The unusually high level of technical problems with two aircraft leased from another carrier put a huge strain on our fleet.

"The domino effect resulted in delays.

"With the leased planes operating more smoothly, we remain committed to a punctual, value-for-money service."

They added: "In August our flights between Glasgow and Palma had an average departure delay of eight minutes and an average arrival delay of just four minutes."

The Edinburgh-based airline were formed by Tom Dalrymple, 62, and employs over 1000 staff.

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n.silvester@sundaymail.co.uk