This is a little experience which I had recently. Every word is true. What is your interpretaton of the cock-ups.

Part 1

My daughter is supposed to be leaving GCRR for EGKK at 18.55 on SCY6794 tonight. Initialy she was advised to check in early as the filght was expected early and an earlier departure slot might be available.

On arrival at the airport she was told there was an unspecified delay.

Eventually a new departure time of 20.00 was posted on the board.

On questioning the Spanish staff at the handling agency she was advised that the aircraft was still on the ground at EGKK and had gone tech.

On returning to the house, she called the Travel Agency, Whitehall Leisure, who could give her no information whatsoever.

She then called EGKK who confirmed that the aircraft had actually left around 16.00.

We are sitting at home now tucking into turkey sandwiches. The remaining couple of hundred pax are milling around in departures with no idea how the hell they are getting home.

It is little surprise why the Aviation industry has a poor reputation.

Obviously, and not for a moment am I suggesting that Flight Crew

take any part in the blame, but it does make me wonder where this crazy, weak link originates.

Update !!!

Thank goodness for flytecomm, maybe I will recomend it to the Tour Operator and the Handling Agent :-

http://www.flytecomm.com/cgi-bin/trackflight

Part 2

Being an honest type, the bit about excluding the flight crew from any blame was to prevent the Wrath of God descending on my head, when all I really wanted, was an insight into the workings of this notoriously creaky system !!!

As they say in the Mitsubishi Advert "You don't tug on Superman’s Cape"

In all fairness, the delay was not the major issue; delays happen for a multitude of reasons, very rarely crew related.

Thanks to Flytecomm, I was able to ascertain that the Flight was en-route and 49 mins from touchdown. It finally departed ACE around 20.10

The real problem is the lack of information, the ignorance and the outright mis-direction, from the agencies involved.

It does nothing to improve the sagging image of the Charter Market.

The flight is due LGW at 24. 00hrs

Update 22.14

Here is the data from Flytecomm :-

Detailed Flight Information:

Air Scandic Flight 6974 to London, England, Great Britain

(EGKK-Gatwick Airport)

36° F

Clear

Airline Air Scandic

Flight Number 6974

Departure City (Airport) Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain (and Territories) (GCRR)

Departure Time 12/28/2003 08:05 PM

Arrival City (Airport) London, England, Great Britain (EGKK)

Arrival Time

Remaining Flight Time 03:22

Aircraft Type

Current Altitude 0 feet

Current Groundspeed 0 mph

Flight Status

Departure times are shown in departure airport local time.

Arrival times are shown in arrival airport local time.

Part 3

Finally got to the root of the story and the cause of the delay.

Apparently the delay in departure was caused by some passengers having tickets for a 13.50 LGW departure and others having tickets for a 15.50 LGW departure. Upshot is that the aircraft had to wait for all the pax with the later departure times. It had not gone tech at all

A "once in a blue moon" cockup you might say.

Not so I am afraid.

When checking in at LGW for the outbound flight to ACE on the 21st, for a 13.55 departure, my daughter was told that there had been a mix up with the tickets and that the actual departure time was 14.55. Brewery and piss-up are a couple of words that come to mind.

I do not know where the blame lies, but it is the first and last time she will use the services of Air Scandic, whoever they may be.

Delays aside, the aircraft had seen better days, the interior was very tired to say the least!!