Police called in as Corfu flight delayed more than 37 hours

POLICE were called in when a flight out of Manchester Airport to Corfu was delayed more than 38 hours – the longest ever delay at the airport.

At least 300 passengers, including holidaymakers stranded in Corfu, were believed to be affected by the technical fault on one of two aircraft run by Small Planet Airlines, which runs the service in partnership with travel company Olympic.

There were angry scenes in Terminal Two on Monday when the 11am Small Planet Airlines service to the Greek island was delayed throughout the day.

Eventually, passengers were accommodated at the Britannia Hotel in Northenden, near the Airport and told the flight would be leaving yesterday.

At 11.40am the flight still had not taken off and passengers were told it would be put back again until 1pm.

However, head of marketing at Lithuania-based Small Planet, Simonas Bartkus told TheBusinessDesk an aircraft was being flown from Poland to take the passengers to Corfu at 1am today.

 “I can confirm that this very long delay has been caused by a serious technical fault on the aircraft,” he said.

Bolton businessman Paul Norris told TheBusinessDesk: “There was absolutely no information about what was going on.

“There were rumours the aircraft has broken down, and that the airline might have gone bust, but no-one could tell us anything.

“I feel really sorry for the airport staff, because they knew as little as we do. We were only going away for seven days, and this has seriously damaged our holiday.

“People were getting very angry and the police arrived to try to calm everyone down. The Olympic rep was being escorted by them.”

Norris said he had been told if he abandoned his holiday he would only get a refund for the flight and not the holiday.

No-one was available to comment from Olympic.

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