Its October 2017, and yet another month clouded by more bad news for the Travel Industry, in a year that has seen Hurricanes devastate the Caribbean and the coast of Florida, leaving homes and lives shattered, livelihoods wrecked. Cruise Lines having to cancel cruises, and altering itineraries to avoid the disaster areas. Thankfully now the worse is over, things are slowly returning to some semblance of normality.
Currently we are all reeling from the shock of the demise of Monarch Airlines – a British Institution – serving the British holidaymakers for the past 40 years! Overnight – gone! Passengers stranded, holidays ruined with little chance of getting their money back! Of course the passengers are not the only victims in this sorry tale. It seems that the Monarch staff hadn’t a clue as to what was going on and were only told at the 11th hour that they no longer had jobs.
I have personally been affected by this sorry affair, as myself and colleague Dawn had booked flights to attend our Annual Cruise.co.uk Conference and now find ourselves out of the frying pan and into the fire, as the only alternative flight is Ryanair!
Talking of which – Casually announcing that 400,000 passengers on 18,000 flights between November 17 and March 18 affecting 25 routes were being cancelled blaming lack of pilots. With ‘Mr Ryanair’ Michael O’Leary, appearing on TV saying he’d ‘messed up’ and sorry about that. Really? no thought of all the disruption and chaos he’s caused! Christmas flights booked well in advance – now no more! Although he must be rubbing his hands with glee at the Monarch news – releasing pilots now looking for alternative employment….. The Civil Aviation Authority have now launched enforcement action against the airline for “persistently misleading passengers” about their rights. All very well, but that still leaves 400,000 people without a flight and out of pocket.
Then we have the surprise announcement from P&O that they are selling the Adonia to Azamara Cruise Line. The sale will be completed in March 2018 and Adonia’s last cruise as a P&O Cruises ship will be D804 leaving Barbados on February 23 and ending in Barbados on March 9, 2018. Again leaving passengers wondering what is going to happen? Thankfully Fred Olsen have stepped in and offered Adonia passengers discounts of up to £200 per person to switch.
Lets not forget the Typhoon Talim in Japan recently, the Diamond Princess was forced , due to the extreme weather, to delay its arrival in Yokohama until a day later when the Typhoon had passed. This situation affected passengers with flights booked back to the UK. So it was all hands to the pumps to rearrange and book alternative flights, and hotel accommodation at our expense, to ensure the clients were not stranded. The amount of manpower needed to bring order to the chaos was incredible, and I must say my colleagues did an outstanding job!
To say its been stressful is a bit of an understatement! Annus Horribilis fits the year very well so far, but lets hope that the worse is over and peace and harmony will be restored for the rest of 2017.