Jet2 hires coaches to get passengers home
BUDGET airline Jet2.com will use coaches to bring holidaymakers home who have been stranded because of volcanic ash-related flight restrictions.
It has hired more than 70 vehicles to pick up travellers stuck in Spain, Portugal and the Czech republic. It follows a similar move by rival Monarch which is busing people back from Spain.
Jet2 has also chartered flights from Lanzarote, Tenerife and Palma to fly passengers to mainland Europe who will then complete their journey to the UK by coach.
Some 304 ski passengers from Chambery and Geneva arrived at Leeds Bradford airport this morning by coach.
The carrier’s managing director Ian Doubtfire said: “We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience being felt by our customers and are doing everything in our power to return them to the UK as quickly as possible. My colleagues and I are literally working 24 hours a day to achieve this.
“We are frustrated we can do nothing with our aircraft so we set up an emergency operations centre here in our offices to hire as many coaches as possible and aircraft and ferries where needed to get as many of our passengers back as we can. It has been difficult to hire all the coaches we need in the current crisis but we are determined to get as many of our passengers home as soon as possible.”
Jet2 is advising all customers to check its website which contains the most up-to-date information about repatriation, refunds and flight cancellations.
