Young Limerick couple on first sun holiday together stranded in Spain with 'nowhere to stay tonight'

A YOUNG couple stranded in Spain don't know where they will be sleeping this Sunday night due to the Aer Lingus "system outage".

Katie Glavin, from Anglesboro, and Ben Hurley, Mitchelstown, both aged 26, flew out to Malaga for their first sun holiday together on Saturday, September 3.

They were due to return home yesterday (Saturday afternoon) leaving Malaga Airport at 4.30pm for the three hour flight to Cork.

"It was a two hour delay announced at first, and after seeing the news stories, we were worried," said Katie, a news reporter with the Avondhu newspaper.

"But it said Spain and Portugal were not affected so we were hopeful. Then another two hour delay was announced and we started checking Twitter and Flight Radar for anything."
 
Katie told Limerick Live this Sunday morning that they were given €15 flight vouchers but the people handing them out had "no information at all".

"No reps came up to speak to us when it was cancelled. There was a huge group of people all waiting on the flight and no one to tell us what to do or where to go
 
"We had to go to the luggage belt and collect our bags off a belt for an incoming Ryanair flight then go back to the departures desk for a bus to a hotel for the night with no information on when we can go home," said Katie.

She said they were put up in a hotel last night, arriving around 11pm.

"We got 'picnic bags' with a sandwich, water and some other things," she said.

Katie and Ben, a care assistant, have now been put on a flight on Monday with a long stopover in Heathrow - see picture below.

"They've put us on this flight tomorrow but we have nowhere to stay tonight. It's awful. Still stuck in Malaga with no communication from Aer Lingus," said Katie, who is over an hour on the phone trying to get through to Aer Lingus.

"I'm onto my travel agent at the minute and she's not meant to be working weekends but she's contacting me and trying to get something sorted. I know it's not her or the companies fault, but the absolute disregard from Aer Lingus is horrible," said Katie.

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In a statement on their website, Aer Lingus said they "sincerely apologise to customers for the severe disruption caused on Saturday, September 10 by the unavailability of key systems for check-in, boarding and our website".

"This system outage was caused by a break in connectivity in services from a UK network provider. The break in connectivity has now been restored and we are taking steps to bring all of our systems back online," it reads.

Aer Lingus had to cancel 51 flights on Saturday, mainly to and from Dublin / European & UK destinations. Aer Lingus is operating the majority of its transatlantic services from Dublin, albeit with delays and reduced passenger numbers in some instances due to security restrictions applying as a result of the systems outage.

Transatlantic services from Shannon operated as normal on Saturday. Aer Lingus Regional (operated by Emerald Airlines) are also planning to operate remaining services on Saturday, albeit with delays.

"Any customer impacted by Saturday's disruptions will be able apply for a refund or change their travel plans, free of charge through aerlingus.com, our call centres and our social media channels. As systems have now been restored we are contacting customers directly in order to re-accommodate them as efficiently as possible.

"We have made additional customer service agents available to deal with high call volumes - please bear with us as we try to service all customer queries. We will also share information regarding customers' rights and the airlines' obligations under Regulation (EC) 261/2004.

"Aer Lingus advises customers that its operations for Sunday, September 11 are planned to operate as normal. Customers are advised to come to the airports at the normal time for their scheduled flight," concludes the statement.