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Just been on the news, all British airports will be open by 10 pm tonight. I do hope so

SKY NEWS STORY

Willie Walsh sort of forced the issue by swamping LHR with a load of aircraft and having them divert initially to Shannon....

BA084 held in orbit over the irish Sea and IOM for an hour then LHR declared open....likewise BA284 held over N Ireland for an hour....

Apparently took two COBRA meetings with Mr Walsh....

Looks more hopeful for you then Gina - fingers crossed for you :)

Yes Foxbat

Willie did force it, 15 incoming 747s and told you can't land at Heathrow, wow.

It seems to me that the CAA has over ruled NATS and the Met office because in essence the situation regarding the emissions has not changed from last Thursday when all this started, I very much hope that this desicion, although very much welcomed is not going to comprimise safety over commercial intrest.

If not, what a waste, and a complete cock up of peoples lives.

S

If indeed WW did apply pressure or blackmail then so be it; but not if it is at the cost of safety.

Seems strange though, because a lot of flights are appearing on the two flight tracker radars (link 1)  and (link 2)  that are not British Airways and these flights too had to have taken off before the announcement was made.

Another strange thing...UK Gov. said the Royal Navy would be used to get people back from Spain; sure enough HMS Albion appeared alonside at Santander picked up the returning troops from Kabul along with 200+ civilians (who might too be ex Kabul) and promptly departed. HMS Ark Royal was supposed to have been used but no announcement has been made anywhere or at any time as to where it would be docking.

In the meantime, the FCO via the website 'ukinspain' gives the following advice..."Stranded in Spain"

Make your way to Calais...do not journey to Santander, Bilbao or Madrid...An advice centre has been set up at Madrid Barajas Airport...seems the only advice forthcoming from them would be 'make your way to Calais...'

Is there do you think the remotest chance that this Government will ever get their act together?

fb

1st flight from Vancouver has arrived at Heathrow today. Let's hope it stays this way & I'll at Heathrow on Sunday.

Willie did force it, 15 incoming 747s and told you can't land at Heathrow, wow.

It seems to me that the CAA has over ruled NATS and the Met office because in essence the situation regarding the emissions has not changed from last Thursday when all this started, I very much hope that this desicion, although very much welcomed is not going to comprimise safety over commercial intrest.

If not, what a waste, and a complete cock up of peoples lives.

S

My thoughts as well, Team GB.

I'm not at all convinced that the correct decisions have been made here.

And I'm married to FB, who disagrees with me on this.  But he's not the one who has to fly in 2 days time.

Thanks Annie

How are you? Did you go over for Easter?

Well, our flight for tomorrow from Murcia is scheduled so, after 6 wonderful weeks, we're going home for a month then out again for a month.

Enjoy your holiday, Gina & Forhotspot.

I'm good Gina thanks. Easter was lovely in spain & actually had good weather for a change.

Hows the flight situation looking for you? This weekend isn't it?

Thanks More I'm sure we will

Glad the weather was good Annie. Yes, looks ok at the moment for Sunday as long as nothing else happens. Checked in online last night so looks as though they are back to normal now and didn't tell me that I had to go to check in desk. Not peaking too soon though LOL

 What time/ where you flying to Gina? I'm off out to Murcia on Friday, arriving around 7.30pm . Don't care if I can't get back on Monday .

Mark

Mark, we fly out of Murcia tomorrow at 1720hrs, we shall miss meeting ... awwww

 Bummer. One day More 

Mark

This from MSN re Compensation for Cancelled Ryanair Flights....

"Thousands of Britons have headed back to the UK as airlines ran near-normal services again following the ash cloud crisis.

Around 2,200 of the hitherto-stranded tourists were sailing back from Bilbao on a new £500 million luxury cruise ship sent out on a rescue mission.

As travellers returned, budget airline Ryanair performed a U-turn on reimbursing passengers.

On Wednesday, the Irish no-frills carrier's chief executive Michael O'Leary said he would reimburse travellers only the original price of their air fare and no more.

But the airline said it would comply with the regulations under which EU airlines are required to reimburse the "reasonable receipted expenses of disrupted passengers".

Both Mr O'Leary and Ryanair stressed that this was not compensation, merely reimbursement. Mr O'Leary said that if claims were not reasonable, they would not be met.

Transport Secretary Lord Adonis welcomed what he described as Ryanair's "revised statement", saying the Government and the Civil Aviation Authority had told Ryanair "in the strongest terms" that they were expected to comply with the EU regulations.

Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Norman Baker had been critical of Mr O'Leary's initial defiance of the regulations.

Later, shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers said a Conservative government "would conduct a wholesale review of the rules governing compensation and travel insurance arrangements for air passengers".

Hi Mark

We are due to fly @ 6.30 Sunday morning to Murcia. Hope all goes well for you The weather forecast looks good too

Has anyone tried to make contact with Ryanair?........from our past experience , it's nigh on impossible (when a return flight from Carcassonne (France) was cancelled due to a lightening strike by airport staff and we had to gain proof in writing from Ryanair that this was a legitimate occurence, albeit not Ryanair's fault). We finished up having to prove to our insurers that Ryanair were totally incommunicado before we could regain our monies. Not a pleasant experience and it was only through sheer determination and through no fault of our own that we gained recompense some five months later.

They are not a company that are particularly renowned for their customer care when things don't go to plan....... Good to see that they have been challenged on this score, but I would be interested to know if people actually do gain return of their monies, given our previous difficulty in making contact with them. Perhaps they have improved their communication system since then?

 Candyfloss,

The weather is great right now starting at about 13 deg. and going up to at least 24! At 22.00 last night it was 19!

See you soon Gina...............................late luch? xx