Easy Jet Manchester

[Princebytor]

After decades of trouble free flying, we experienced the hassle of a cancelled flight for the first time ever. The Paphos to Manchester EJ flight was cancelled last night (or delayed overnight, as the airline calls it). Surprisingly, that is 2 nights running (the Monday night flight was cancelled as well). Whilst I can accept that unexpected problems can occur (even 2 days running) my main complaint is the total lack of proper communication from the airline when having to deal with the problem. The app was updated to advise us that the flight would not be departing on time at 22.10 but would be leaving at 1.30am, to be then told at 23.00 that the flight was cancelled. The plane took off from Manchester at 18.30 (20.30 our time) and I would imagine that they had a good idea when it left Manchester, that it wouldn't be able to make the return flight, so why waste everybody's time by getting passengers to the airport 2 hours before it's scheduled departure time, have them check in their bags and go through security ?........... Apologies for the whinging, as I suppose we got off lightly and went back to our villa, leaving the masses (a lot of them with young kids) fighting to get on buses taking them to god knows where!!

[Paul]

I was told by a lady her son's flight on Sunday night was cancelled again it was Easyjet.

[Princebytor]

Yes I can track via FlightRadar24 the progress of the plane used on any flight and the way they allocated the workload of the plane before the Man to Paphos leg was always going to be a problem. Given that they had already been cancelling flights from here you would have thought that the operations team would have prioritised this route for a while

[Firefly]

Why are they cancelled? Is EJ in trouble?

I usually fly EJ, and have always found them to be very good.

[Princebytor]

Yes, so have we, but they seem to be struggling at the moment, mostly due to way they are scheduling the use of the planes. As the Manchester flight leaves around 3 o clock EJ sometimes schedule the plane to do a couple of short return flights before the Paphos flight and with AIr Traffic Control restrictions leading to delays the plane is not back in Manchester in time to do the Paphos flight. The plane for the Tuesday flight was swopped 3 times before it left at 18.30 instead of 14.45. Ironically the plane they did use was due to go to Corfu and that flight was eventually cancelled and not flown until 24 hours later on Wednesday...........just seems they don't have enough planes/crew to deal with the level of ATC delays atm.

[Firefly]

Certainly not good for their reputation, prospective customers may well think twice before booking.

[Anarita John]

Two years ago, in July we experienced the nightmare of an easyjet flight being cancelled. We had a disabled person flying with us, and got as far as the aircraft doors before being told by the captain that the flight was cancelled. It was still covid, and there weren't many flights and ours was the last flight out.

Airport staff told us all we had to wait at the airport, as if we left we would not know what time to come back in the morning.An hour later we were told we had to check in again at 10am. Buses arrived to take us to a hotel but our passenger couldn't climb up the steps. Taxis by this time had all gone home. We had to ring a neighbour, at 2am in the morning, to come and take us back home.

Next day, arrived at the airport. Checked in at 10am only to find our flight would take off at 4pm in the afternoon. Was not pleased. Paphos airport had insisted on the 10am checkin time to save on staff costs, as there were no flights between 10am and 4pm.

The rest of the passengers were put up in a 3 star hotel that had not yet opened because of covid,with no aircon and no water. This included the easyjet staff. Captain was full of apologies when we eventually got on the plane.

What annoyed us was the Jet 2 Manchester flight, due to take off at the same time as us, was cancelled at 8pm, the time we arrived at the airport.

[Steve - SJD]

Why are they cancelled? Is EJ in trouble?

I usually fly EJ, and have always found them to be very good.

To be fair many of the airlines have had issues recently and could well be the knock on effect from the software problem that affected many companies a short while ago. Planes could be in the wrong place, crews out of time plus any other normal issues.

I know EJ, Jet2 & TUI had all cancelled/delayed flights last week.

My wife & daughter were due to fly to Leeds last Monday night (22nd) - Jet2 - flight cancelled then coached to Paphos and eventually flown to Manchester at around 1am and then further delay before onward coach to Leeds.

Cheers

Steve

[Princebytor]

As a postscipt to this and in the interests of balance, I think it now fair to point out that EJ have paid us for the additional taxi fares to and from the airport and our out of pocket expenses together with the statutory compensation of £350 each. The claim process was all done via the EJ website and was relatively straightforward.