Scottish airline strands hundreds in New York’s JFK airport for days

Hundreds of holiday fliers were stranded for up to a week in New York by a Scotland-based budget airline.

Shuttled between JFK airport and local hotels for days, exhausted and angry customers who bought tickets on Flyglobespan to Liverpool, England, and Ireland West Airport Knock either canceled their vacations or made frantic attempts to book on other airlines, said Desmond O’Carroll, a New York lawyer who was among them.

Stephen Elmy, Flyglobespan’s Toronto-based general manager for North America, confirmed Thursday that Flyglobespan had canceled its JFK flights to the Ireland and Liverpool airports from June 28 through Tuesday, finally departing Wednesday night.

Initially, Elmy said, lightning struck one of the airline’s Boeing 757-200 jets, causing electrical problems that were discovered when it arrived in New York. Repairs took days.

In the meantime, he said, the airline couldn’t replace the jet because a security alert had grounded half its fleet. The alert, which closed airports in Glasgow, Scotland, and Liverpool, was declared Saturday after terrorists crashed a flaming sport utility vehicle into Glasgow’s main terminal.

Elmy and O’Carroll gave different accounts of how Flyglobespan treated passengers on canceled flights, although they both said they were put up in hotels and offered meals. (O’Carroll said the passengers often went hungry because they were being shuttled or because food outlets didn’t honor the airline’s vouchers.)

O’Carroll, echoing reports in the Irish media, said customers were unable to reach Flyglobespan throughout their ordeal and were misinformed by gate staff, who were subcontracted by the airline. These employees told them at least eight times between Thursday and Sunday that planes would be taking off, mustering passengers to board nonexistent flights, O’Carroll said.

Flyglobespan refused passengers’ demands to rebook them on other airlines, insisting that its own flights would arrive soon, he said. Many finally made their own arrangements.

O’Carroll said he was among about 30 passengers who got on a Delta flight to Shannon, Ireland, on Sunday night, paying just under $400. Passengers who rebooked on other airlines, he said, reported paying one-way fares up to $1,400.

While waiting for his Delta flight, O’Carroll said, he visited the Flyglobespan gate, where he found a “surreal” scene of hundreds of people lined up without staff to check them in.

But Elmy said that customers were regularly informed of developments and that “they were all looked after,” although he acknowledged communications problems.

“We’re an Internet-based airline,” he said. “We don’t have 24-hour reservations staff.” At one point, he said, gate agents gave stranded fliers the wrong phone number for Flyglobespan.

Contradicting O’Carroll, Elmy said, “We did arrange flights for a number of people with various airlines,” including Air India and Zoom, a low-cost Canadian carrier.

He said displaced customers could request refunds of their Flyglobespan fares, but “we’re not going to be refunding what they paid other airlines, because they were offered a seat on the first flight we operated and were put up in hotels.”

On its website Thursday, the airline said, “The company recognizes the severe inconvenience caused and would like to apologize for these extraordinary circumstances which were entirely outside the control of the airline.”

Although U.S. law generally doesn’t require airlines to reaccommodate or compensate displaced passengers, unless they are bumped by overbooking, the Flyglobespan flights may fall under European Union law, which is stricter.

Flyglobespan, which was launched in 2002 and flies to several European destinations, began U.S. service in late 2005, in Florida. In May it added New York and Boston as U.S. gateways. Its jets to Liverpool are emblazoned with a self-portrait of late Beatle John Lennon.