Planes were grounded and up to 90,000 holidaymakers were left stranded abroad after XL Leisure Group went into administration in the early hours of yesterday.
The firm operated flights from Glasgow, Manchester and Gatwick to destinations including Tenerife and Florida. Tens of thousands of people arrived at the airports yesterday to find their holiday flights had been cancelled.
And travellers could face further woes after British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh predicted that another 30 airlines will go bust within the next four months.
And this is going on here too. Great story here.
On Thursday night XL Airways flight JN1121 pushed back from the terminal at Sanford International, the Orlando airport that is the gateway to Florida for thousands of British holidaymakers every year.
For the 266 passengers on board it was the end of a late summer break – two weeks spent basking on the beach or squealing with delight on the rides at Disneyland.
The thrills weren’t over just yet. As the aircraft prepared to taxi, two police cars raced up, lights flashing. The plane stopped, then eased back to its stand. The passengers were told to get off. “We went backwards about 150 feet, stopped and got a message from the captain that there had been a bit of a problem,” one passenger told a local television news crew.
Flying commercial airlines sucks!
#2 – when were the U.S. airlines ever nationalized? I’m not aware of any period in history where the U.S. government actually owned an airline.
#4 – Chuck
>>when were the U.S. airlines ever nationalized? I’m
>>not aware of any period in history where the U.S.
>>government actually owned an airline.
You’ll have to excuse James Hill. He has trouble sometimes speaking in a way that can be understood by bipeds. His lexicon consists mostly of grunts and animal sounds.
I believe what he was referring to, in his own special way, was the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978.
In any case, this is just another reason to stay the f&ck off of commercial airlines. Even if the company doesn’t bankrupt and have the planes seized at gunpoint, it’s just about NEVER a pleasant experience. Over the past 10 years, air travel has deteriorated beyond the point of tolerability.
I love the part of the story where the Orlando airport evidently forces the plane to return to the terminal so it can be impounded for landing fees owed by the airline. That’s 266 people literally minutes away from flying home after 2 weeks of Florida vacation, now scrambling to book last minute flights on alternate airlines. Wonder if any will ever consider another vacation in Florida?
#5 “Even if the company doesn’t bankrupt and have the planes seized at gunpoint, it’s just about NEVER a pleasant experience. Over the past 10 years, air travel has deteriorated beyond the point of tolerability.”
No kidding. I hate traveling now and avoid it if possible.
BTW – Alitalia is going under. Union won’t agree to lose some jobs so will probably lose ALL jobs. None too bright.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7615113.stm
Well I guess that means less fuel used, so less pollution and less global warming. Really people should just take a train or relax on a boat.
# 10 MikeN said:
“Really people should just take a train or relax on a boat.”
Really, I’d love to, but WHAT TRAINS? For the last fifty years or so the airlines have lobbied HARD against passenger trains, to the point where less than 40% of the US now has any passenger train service to speak of. Sure, I could drive 300 miles and catch a slow, overcrowded Amtrak train travelling on overcrowded, overloaded freight tracks to destinations in any of 20 or 30 states, _if_ I can get a reservation and _if_ I don’t have to be there any sooner than 3 or 4 (or more) days.
I love train travel — it is so superior to air travel these days it’s not even funny, but it is literally hundreds of miles to the nearest station, and there are so few left that they are usually booked solid weeks in advance. And while billions are spent every year on highways and airports, Amtrak is expected to make a profit with zero infrastructure support. So even though they really don’t, it costs more than airline travel.
#11 “For the last fifty years or so the airlines have lobbied HARD against passenger trains,”
Umm, they don’t exist because they aren’t profitable. The only way they’d exist is with MASSIVE public subsidies. Why would I want to ride a train for 5 hours when I could fly for 45 minutes?