By Thomas Gautier
Incredible events at Gate A23 of Munich Airport!
On Thursday evening, the federal police had to protect employees there from angry passengers of the airline “Marabu”. Around 9:30 p.m., officials arrived to board the flight to Corfu (Greece).
“Marabu” passenger Björn Ewald (28) to BILD: “The nerves are more than blank. The federal police are at the start with three or four men. There are noisy discussions.”
The reason: the passengers had been waiting for their plane for more than 15 hours. It was supposed to start on Thursday at 5:55 a.m. But the young airline “Marabu” did not have enough aircraft – and did not get replacements quickly enough.
The result: anger, chaos and despair. According to manager Björn Ewald, the plane was overbooked.
Ewald at 9:30 p.m.: “The chartered machine was too small. Around eleven people could not fly. We didn’t make it onto the plane either.”
The outcasts then went to Austria – by taxi and bus! Destination: Graz, 380 kilometers away. According to Ewald, even families with children should be carted there by bus. “They canceled the trip.”
40 passengers had to go to Graz
A spokesman on BILD request: “Unfortunately, the airline commissioned for yesterday’s “Marabu” flight from Munich to Corfu (MBU6596) was only able to provide the aircraft with a long delay. In addition, an aircraft type was used that only has business class seating and therefore has fewer seats than the type originally planned.”
The spokesman said about the taxi rides: “The majority of the passengers – including all families with children or passengers with health restrictions – were transported from Munich to Corfu in the evening with the replacement plane. 40 passengers who could not fly due to the limited capacity were rebooked on an alternative flight from Graz and have now also reached their destination.”
The federal police had to help out briefly on Thursday. The flights to Corfu and Mallorca have been repeatedly postponed.
The Ewalds didn’t arrive in Graz until around 6 a.m. the next morning. “We should continue to fly there with Eurowings.”
And THIS TIME it worked. At 7.30 a.m. the Ewalds were on the Eurowings plane to Corfu. Finally vacation – after more than 24 hours of waiting.