Councillor still getting feedback on five-hour airport hold-up after flight turned back

Airline bosses have been quizzed over this year’s travel chaos, which saw passengers stranded at Edinburgh Airport after a flight to Sumburgh turned back due to strong winds.

Questions were raised at Tuesday’s external transport meeting by elected member Liz Peterson.

She said she was still getting feedback from people who had endured the mammoth hold-up at Edinburgh, as folk sought to return home after being away during the October break.

Loganair had to apologise after passengers, some of them families with small children, were left waiting up to five hours at the airport late at night.

They were not given any food vouchers and told they would have to find their own accommodation.

Many said they were advised to travel to Aberdeen and catch the NorthLink ferry, despite the sailing having already been cancelled.

Speaking during Tuesday’s meeting, the West Side councillor said Loganair staff in the capital had been left without ground-level support from Menzies Aviation, and wondered if there had been a “breakdown in communication” between the two.

“The service they’re getting from Menzies staff is just not acceptable,” she said.

She asked what assurances there were that people would be looked after when flights are forced to return to their departing airport.

Loganair’s operations manager Natalie Bush said ensuring a “whole package of customer support is in place” was at the “top of my agenda”.

She said challenges arose during “maximum disruption events” when all the airlines were coming back to one place.

“I’m not going to say we always get things perfectly right, because it’s a very dynamic situation,” she said.

But she told the forum: “It’s a real focus at the top of my radar to improve resilience.”

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