You had to get up very early on Saturday morning not to miss flight V7 2214 from the city of Nantes to Malaga in Spain.
But when it comes to going on vacation, we are often more inclined to lose a few hours of sleep to make the most of the Spanish sun as quickly as possible.
This is undoubtedly what the passengers said to each other at dawn that morning, when boarding, which then went off without the slightest hitch.
At around 6 a.m., all the passengers were able to board the plane, without incident.
The engines are heating up, but as our colleagues from France 3 Pays de la Loire tell it, the plane suddenly begins to reverse, to return to park as if nothing had happened.
Passengers stranded in Spain
They are then informed of a technical problem. The start of hell. The 180 passengers on the Volotea airline flight begin their journey with a three-hour wait in the plane, tell our colleagues. Then the passengers take the direction of the airport. Isabelle, a passenger cited by France 3, tells them that they are told of another flight at 2 p.m., which will never appear on the screens. No more than the second flight they had been promised, at 6 p.m. The 180 passengers then had to queue to be assigned a hotel room and were given dishes they could have hoped for more filling.
The abused passengers were then promised a plane at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning.
Then at 10:30 am.
At 11 a.m., the airline counter was closed at the airport.
Difficult, under these conditions, to obtain reliable information.
At the same time, passengers wishing to make the reverse route also found themselves stranded.
For good reason: their journey depended on the landing of the plane from Nantes.
The troubles continue: still in Malaga, flight scheduled for 16:30.
We are still awaiting registration, it is 5:00 pm ... Only 6 passengers managed to get through.
The passenger list has not been carried over.
It had to be recreated one by one.
- Stéphane Morin (@secaplus) August 1, 2021
The plane was finally able to take off shortly after 2 p.m. Sunday. Or 32 hours late in total. In a press release, Volotea apologized for the inconvenience and recalled that “vouchers of 20 euros have been distributed to all passengers, all meals have been provided and also free accommodation has been offered for the night from July 31 to August 1 ”. The company adds that "for passengers who so wished, options to change flights or full refund have also been offered."
