4:06pm Monday 21st December 2009
AN ANGRY Bolton mum trying to join her son in the Philippines for Christmas has confronted Manchester Airport’s chief executive over the disruption caused by cancelled flights.
Dozens of flights were cancelled on Sunday at the region’s main airport as workers struggled to clear heavy snow and ice from runways.
As the airport attempted to clear the backlog today several hundred people were queuing halfway down the terminal 2 building attempting to get onto alternative flights.
Among them was Bridget Fogg, aged 50, from Dunscar, Bolton, and her husband Gary, aged 54, who were planning to fly to Borocay Island via Manila and Amsterdam to meet up with son Sam who is working there.
They were due to set off on the first part of their journey to Amsterdam on Sunday.
“We had a two hour delay on Sunday before we finally boarded, but then we were held on the runway for five and a half hours before we were told the flight was cancelled,” she said.
The couple began to queue at the KLM ticket desk at 4am on Monday and seven hours later had still not reached the front of the queue, with an angry Mrs Fogg complaining about a lack of staff available to help passengers.
She confronted airport chief executive Andrew Cornish in front of other fed-up travellers.
“We have hardly moved in that queue,” she told him.
“There is one person sitting on the desk. Why can’t somebody lend them a body to help people book their flights?”
A contrite Mr Cornish told her: “I apologise on their behalf. If I have to sit behind the desk I will.”
A short time later extra staff were provided to help weary travellers at the Air France and KLM desks.
By mid afternoon, with the exception of four cancelled flights to Amsterdam and Paris, the airport had cleared the backlog of flights and was operating normally.
Around 27,000 people were due to depart from Manchester today on 215 flights but the airport is advising people due to travel to parts of Europe affected by snow to check with their airlines before setting off from home.
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