Roger Wiseman, Qala
Flight from Manchester habitually late
I write with reference to Mark Lavelle's letter regarding the Air Malta service on Thursday, to and from Manchester.
We spend most of the year on Gozo, and family and friends visit, preferring if possible to support Air Malta who have scheduled this flight at a very enticing time. My wife booked flight KM147 scheduled to leave Manchester at 4.45 p.m., on May 15. It was two hours, 45 minutes late in departing.
This, coupled with a baggage handling problem at Luqa meant that the passengers who needed to travel onwards to Gozo consequently missed the midnight ferry and had to sit waiting at Ċirkewwa until the 1.45 a.m. ferry. My wife did not arrive home until 2.30, a total journey time of 14 and a half hours from door to door.
Since then I have been monitoring this incoming flight on a weekly basis as we have friends coming out, some of whom have booked, or are looking to book this particular flight because of its "convenient" time, scheduled to arrive at 9.05 p.m. local time. All reasonable travellers accept that there are times when delays are beyond the airline's control, but not the same flights week in week out. The actual arrival times have been as follows when all should be 9.05 p.m.:
• May 15: Arrived 11.30 p.m.
• May 22: Arrived 3.30 a.m. the next day
• May 30: Arrived 1.30 a.m. the next day
• June 5: Arrived 11.10 p.m.
• June 12: Arrived 11.50 p.m.
• June 19: I was unable to check
• June 26: Arrived 1.30 a.m. the next day
As one can see, this flight out of Manchester is habitually late, and not just because of a 15/30 minute slot problem. The outgoing flight is subsequently delayed by the same amount of time with the passengers having been corralled at Luqa since 7.55 p.m.
Given that these flights have been unable to depart at their scheduled time for several months (and we will monitor future flights), coupled with the use of non-Air Malta aircraft, surely Air Malta is legally/morally breaching their contract of sale in allowing people to continue booking these flights knowing that the published time is a myth, and also that they will be in a non-Air Malta plane. Passengers honour their side of the contract by paying and turning up at the time insisted on and Air Malta should honour their side and fly passengers out at the scheduled time in an Air Malta plane.
Air Malta must come clean and say this is a charter partner over which they have no control (I am told the delay build-up is because this plane is shared with XL Holidays UK) and give those who have already booked the option to change flights at no extra cost. We are paying more than Air Malta's competitors charge for the "convenient" time slot and not getting it, and where does it say on its website that it will not be one of its planes?
I e-mailed Air Malta sales on June 9 and I am still awaiting their reply.
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Paul Taylor
Jul 15th 2008, 11:38
Update: I just received a reply from Air Malta regarding the Manchester flight and they stated they are aware of the problems and are doing their best to sort it out so hopefully things will be rectified soon.
I can't fault their customer service. There just seems to be a regular delay on that one flight for some reason. It was a LatCharter plane again when I last flew but it left a bit earlier than last time (about 00:30) and there were no problems at the Manchester end. Our bags beat those of all the other airlines so that side of things seems to be sorted out!
Not worth switching to Easyjet yet, that's for sure. I spent the time for my last delay in the La Valette lounge and at about 24 Euros I highly recommend it if you think you'll be getting a long delay (free drinks and snacks and comfy seats).
Paul Taylor
Jul 10th 2008, 18:20
Terrible delays from Malta to Manchester regularly now every Thursday it would seem. As I sit here on the 10th July after calling to check my plane for this evening it has been delayed by 2 hours already (although they often extend this once the deadline gets closer). I've written to customer complaints and Joe Capello directly about this as I use this flight regularly and have still received no reply. I'll be writing again after this one for what it's worth.
Seeing as it regularly gets delayed to 23:50 (at least) I wish they would just reschedule the flight for then so that I'd only have to check in at 21:50. I just now and asked if I could come later as it was delayed and was informed I'd still have to check in by 7:55pm as originally scheduled. The flight hasn't even left Manchester yet!
Not looking forward to the inevitable flight on the LatCharter plane again.. Wonder if I can book direct with them and save the money instead in future? Easyjet is looking a likely alternative. There are just as few frills on the LatCharter planes (a Latvian Charter Airline) so why not?
charles galea
Jul 8th 2008, 20:08
With a name like his , I would expect Mr Wiseman not to try and pull the wool over our eyes with his mathematics of how long his wifes journey from manchester to gozo took.If according to him the flight arrived at 07:30 pm , how on earth did his wife miss the midnight Gozo shuttle ?
As a frequent flier , before I leave home I check on the airport website to see if the previous sector flight is delayed. In this instance KM 146 departs Malta more than 4 hours before landing in Manchester to operate KM 147 after an hour turnaround. Mr Wiseman could visit
1) http://www.maltairport.com/departures
2) http://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/MANFlightInfo
and check his flights' departure and arrival times. Be true to your name next time you travel !
I will just say that in this highly competitive world , flights have to follow each other closely and afternoon flights accumulate morning delays as a consequence.
I am sure that Airmalta will try to fix this problem , since all delays are monitored seriously.
Roger and out !
Do you really exist ????
M. Lavelle
Jul 8th 2008, 17:04
E.U/ E.C. Law is just too fragile and weak. Thousands of customers will continue to be abused until stronger consumer legislation is introduced. However at the end of the day it must be acknowledged lthat low cost airlines are managed in a much more economical, profitable and punctual manner than the senior managers at Air Malta could hope to do!
Joseph Calleja
Jul 8th 2008, 13:30
Don't hold your breath about getting an answer from Air Malta Customer Care. They are very inefficient and very slow in acknowledging. In many of their routes they have very little competition so they have the upper hand........
Collen Isherwood
Jul 8th 2008, 12:59
Under EU law (Air Passenger rights) is a statement that reads:
The airline that will provide the service (if this is different from the airline mentioned on your ticket)
So if you book thinking you are using Air Malta, but turns out its not, I think the above statement should apply
Philip Gatt
Jul 8th 2008, 09:40
AirMalta seem to have a habit of doing this. More than once family members had booked flights with them from Liverpool to Malta, only to be told once they got to the airport that 'due to technical problems' they were being transferred to Manchester to fly from there.
How often do they have technical problems? Is it always the Liverpool flights that have these problems? Or is it a case of not having enough passengers from Liverpool so they get lumped on the Manchester flight to fill the plane up, costing AirMalta less in the process?