Summary
- Air Nostrum faces backlash for prioritizing a charter flight for Sevilla FC, forcing 80 passengers to endure a 4-hour bus ride as a substitute of a 1-hour flight.
- The incident has sparked a media storm in Spain, with affected passengers expressing frustration and missing necessary connections.
- Air Nostrum operates the Mitsubishi CRJ1000, with a median fleet age of 14.8 years.
Air Nostrum has come under criticism for canceling a scheduled passenger flight from Vigo to Madrid in favor of transporting the Spanish football club Sevilla FC. The controversial decision by the Spanish airline meant that 80 passengers needed to travel the 600 km (372 miles) to Madrid by bus, taking some 4 hours longer to succeed in their final destination than the one-hour flight time.
The incident took place on the evening of November 4th, when flight IB8869 from Vigo (VGO) to Madrid (MAD) was canceled, with the aircraft as a substitute operating a charter flight to Seville (SVQ). Air Nostrum was apparently forced to make use of certainly one of its scheduled jets because it couldn’t use the aircraft originally chartered by Sevilla FC attributable to a technical problem. Sevilla FC had been in Vigo to play against Celta Vigo – the match led to a 1-1 draw.
Photo: Lukas Wunderlich I Shutterstock
The aircraft that was used to fly to Seville was EC-MLC, a CRJ1000 operated by Air Nostrum on behalf of Iberia Regional. Iberia serves Vigo as much as 4 times per day from Madrid, with certainly one of the flights operated by Air Nostrum. Iberia’s Airbus A320 family aircraft are deployed on the remaining services.
The incident has attracted national media attention in Spain, with reports of passengers having missed international connections and necessary appointments because of this of the cancelation. The Spanish newspaper El País quoted certainly one of the affected passengers as saying,
“That only happens in a banana republic. Football is allowed to take every thing and everybody by surprise.”
Photo: Isaac_123M | Shutterstock
After landing in Seville on the evening of November 4th, EC-MLC headed back to its base at Madrid’s Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas International Airport, and has since operated a series of domestic and regional flights. In keeping with Flightradar24, over the past couple of days, the aircraft has flown to destinations including Mahón (MAH), Turin (TRN), and Alicante (ALC). Air Nostrum has two other operating bases along with Madrid – Barcelona (BCN) and Valencia (VLC).
What do you think that of this incident involving Air Nostrum flight IB8869 from Vigo to Madrid? Have you ever ever experienced something similar when traveling? Tell us by commenting below.
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