Transport / Loganair apologises after another day of disruption on Heathrow-Sumburgh service
LOGANAIR’s customer service has come under criticism again following more disruption on its service connecting Sumburgh and London Heathrow.
A group of passengers only arrived in Shetland off a flight from Aberdeen this morning (Friday) some 24 hours after they checked in at Heathrow for a different service.
The plane which was due to fly them to Dundee at 9.45am on Thursday and then onto Sumburgh was cancelled due to technical reasons.
But some passengers have criticised the communication and lack of information received in the aftermath of the cancellation, as well as a lack of help on the ground at Heathrow.
One said for a while they were effectively left “completely stranded” in Heathrow.
It comes after the service was similarly cancelled on 2 July apparently without explanation – with “chaos” then ensuing, according to a passenger who sent a letter to Shetland News about his experience.
Loganair said this week that its customer service on 2 July had fallen short of expectations.
When asked for a response to the issues experienced yesterday, a spokesperson for the airline said: “We are currently investigating this with our partners and will aim to make improvements where we can.
“We are liaising with customers directly in regards to this flight and apologise for the inconvenience caused.’’
Kate Wills was one of the passengers on yesterday’s disrupted service.
She said after around eight hours in Heathrow the passengers received confirmation they had been rebooked in groups onto alternative flights to Scotland for onward travel to Shetland.
Wills was booked onto to a flight Aberdeen, which was delayed, and then a service from the Granite City to Sumburgh this morning.
Her flight from Heathrow got into Aberdeen after 11pm on Thursday, with Wills only getting provided with a hotel room after midnight – before getting up again at 4.30am for the 6.30am flight to Sumburgh.
She said the passengers should have landed in Sumburgh at 12.35pm on Thursday.
Wills criticised a lack of information given out after their flight was cancelled, and said that while passengers were advised to contact ground agent Swissport, its workers took “no responsibility for Loganair’s mess”.
“There was no helpdesk anywhere, so we were all camped out in the Loganair check-in queue with no seating for the elderly people in our party,” she added.
Wills explained that passengers had boarded the Heathrow to Dundee flight on Thursday morning but said they were told an emergency battery was overcharging and that it may “explode” unless fixed.
She said the passengers returned to the terminal at around 10.45am and were told to find a Loganair helpdesk – but no such desk exists at Heathrow’s terminal two, Wills added.
She added that passengers had to unlock a door at an unmanned exit to get out of an empty “dead-end corridor” which set off alarms.
With no guidance on what to do, the passengers decided to head to the Loganair check-in desk in departures.
Wills said a Swissport employee said for around two hours that a manager was due to come to speak to them. She added that passengers only received one food voucher each after three hours.
Wills also claimed that a Swissport worker advised the passengers they could “drive” to Shetland after landing in Aberdeen.
At around 4.30pm passengers were told that they would receive an email with details of rebooked flights and hotel accommodation but Wills said this was never received.
She claims there was still a lack of communication from Loganair regarding hotel accommodation in Aberdeen after she landed at the city’s airport.
The Heathrow-Dundee-Sumburgh one-plane service was launched last year.
Then Loganair chief Jonathan Hinkles described it as a “gamechanger” for Shetland given Heathrow’s vast array of onward connections.
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