Aer Lingus passengers 'dumped' outside Spanish airport in middle of the night
Flight EI 0174 from Dublin bound for Alicante on Saturday night instead diverted to Valencia which is at least 180km away
Aer Lingus passengers claimed they were “dumped” outside a Spanish airport in the middle of the night forcing them to pay hundreds of euros for taxis to get to their planned destination.
It has emerged that Flight EI 0174 from Dublin bound for Alicante on Saturday night instead diverted to Valencia which is at least 180km away. The former national carrier told passengers they would be bussed to Alicante but were then informed there was no vehicles available.
Later still the frustrated travellers were informed they would be provided with taxis but there wasn’t enough available and many ended up paying up to €400.
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Shauna Fagan said her parents were stuck at the airport and had to pay €350 to get to Alicante and claimed they didn’t get any help from Aer Lingus.
She added: “They were then told that their ground partner Avia would provide surface transport to Alicante.
“At almost half one Spanish time, I got another message from my dad saying ‘no assistance. We are all outside airport waiting on buses to show up. I’d say we be here a while’.
“Shortly followed up with a ‘it’s amazing when things like this happen no one around from Aer Lingus at all or anyone else I’d say there’s about 200 of us waiting outside’.”
Another passenger tweeted: “Aer Lingus flight diverted from Alicante to Valencia. Every passenger dumped outside the airport. No rep. No advice. Disgraceful.”
In an email to passengers Aer Lingus said the diversion was made because of adverse weather conditions and initially told them there would be buses available. The airline said in a statment: “Aer Lingus flight EI0574 Dublin – Alicante was forced to divert into Valencia Airport on Saturday due to thunderstorms and adverse weather conditions, as was the case for many other airlines.
“Due to high levels of demand on bus and taxi services at Valencia, some customers may have secured their own transportation to Alicante, and these costs will be reimbursed.”
The airline also added separately “due to a technical issue, flight EI0589 from Malaga to Dublin was unavoidably delayed and subsequently cancelled”.
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