The 170 passengers who have been stuck in Portugal since Monday should all be home again this afternoon. Transavia has designated a device that would fly to Schiphol at the beginning of the afternoon as ‘replacement flight’. Their original flight to Eindhoven turned around on Monday evening because of a motor failure.
In the meantime, more flights have left Faro Airport for the Netherlands, but during the busy holiday months there is not always room for extra passengers.
“Some passengers have already returned in another way,” a spokesperson told NH. For example, 17-year-old Naomi Broekhoff booked her flight and wait for Faro for a Transavia flight that has to leave for Rotterdam at 12.05 am (Dutch time). “It was also delayed again,” she says NH this morning.
Turn around by motor problems
Naomi and the two girlfriends with whom she is on vacation were often told that message for the past 42 hours. On Monday evening, after 10 days of resting in Faro they stepped unsuspectingly on their original return flight. “Ten minutes after it had taken off, we were told that we had to turn around due to a technical malfunction.”
Once landed, the passengers had to wait three hours in a warm plane for further instructions. “We did get half a cup of water,” says Naomi. Then they were taken from the airport. “A woman said that we should report here tomorrow at 8.30 am for a new flight.” The extra overnight stay was reimbursed by Transavia.
Missed job interview
When the three girlfriends arrive at Faro the next morning, they get an annoying message: this flight is also canceled. “Then we called Transavia all day, but everyone said something else. We would fly at 9.30 pm, but that was canceled either.”
And so today the girls are again at the Portuguese airport, where they occasionally come across a familiar face. “There is bonding yes.” They keep the courage in it, but the situation is annoying. “One friend has now missed a different holiday flight and another a job interview. You just want to go home, but you are stuck.”
Flights are now departing
Good news for Naomi: she is now on the plane. According to Schiphol flight information, the flight to Amsterdam has just left. A Transavia spokesperson informed NH that victims can submit a claim via the website.
The airline had the past two summers Many problems around the fleet. That caused hundreds of canceled flights. According to the spokesperson, those problems have since been resolved and the summer has been satisfactory so far.