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Roughly 150 people, most of whom are Czechs, were trapped on the Greek island of Skiathos on Saturday by a strong storm. The airlines canceled the passengers’ morning flight, but they have not yet learned when they will be able to continue their journey. Seniors and mothers with small children are waiting at the airport. Some of the passengers preferred to go home on their own.
For the second day already, a group of about 150 people is waiting for a flight from Skiathos, Greece. They were supposed to leave for Vienna on Saturday morning. The plane circled the island for a while, but could not land due to the storm. “Our plane missed us and continued to Athens instead,” said Mr. Martin, who got stuck on vacation with his wife, to TN.cz on Sunday.
At least half of the passengers waiting for news about a replacement connection should be Czechs and Slovaks. “We have made such a big group here and we are deciding what will happen next. There are really small children here, one or two years old,” pointed out Mr. Martin.
Already on Saturday, tourists spent practically the whole day together in the airport premises. It wasn’t until the evening that they were instructed to move to a hotel where they had secured alternative accommodation. At least they got some sleep that way. In the morning, the group went to the airport again and was full of expectations and hopes. But the passengers did not receive any new news about the replacement flight.
“We don’t have any information at all. No one knows anything at the airport either, you can’t call Ryanair’s infoline,” Martin complained on Sunday. According to him, many people have already gone home on their own. He himself considers going to the Austrian capital, where his car is parked, on his own axis. “If we don’t fly out by tomorrow morning, we would take a ferry to Thessaloniki. And then a plane flies directly to Vienna from there,” he explained.
The editors of TN.cz also contacted Ryanair, which arranged the flight. But she hasn’t received any response yet.
However, this is not the only case of Czechs whose vacation was ruined by canceled flights. At the end of June, unsuccessful attempts were made to obtain information from Eurowings about 30 travelers stranded in Barcelona. Finally, they were told that they would have to wait several days for a replacement flight.
Air transport faces criticism especially after the start of summer. People complain about long queues, unexpectedly canceled flights or landing at a different airport than where they had purchased tickets. These are problems faced by thousands of people practically all over the world. The reason is said to be a lack of employees at airports and congested flight paths. According to experts, the situation is not going to get any better.
Check out the report on the problems at airports (06/22):
TN.cz
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