Aer Lingus offers stranded fans €8
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Hundreds of dejected Irish fans were stranded by Aer Lingus in Charles de Gaulle Airport for eight hours and offered just €8 in compensation.
The supporters, many of whom had not been to bed, began arriving in the airport from 7am yesterday for a 10.20am flight home.
Some of the travelling Green Army had paid in excess of €200 for the flight to Dublin, but were compensated less than €10 for food and drink, as they sat in the small departures area.
It was not until almost 4pm before they eventually took off on their Aer Lingus plane.
For a time, the fans were kept upbeat by one boisterous supporter. He had commandeered a microphone to sing Ole Ole -- not realising that his off-key tones were being transmitted across the airport.
"Every hour or so, he gives us a bit of a sing song," said a disappointed Niall Ferguson, from Dundalk.
But the French security seemed embarrassed to stop the Irish singer and, instead, a female steward negotiated the return of the microphone.
Some of those waiting had booked the early flight rather than a hotel, and went straight to the airport from the pubs. Many were barely awake by the time they were allowed on.
"People seem to have just accepted it, but there is obvious disappointment," Mr Ferguson told the Herald.
"If we had won, we wouldn't have minded the plane being delayed all day."
The frustration was made worse by the fact that the travelling pack could see their plane sitting on the runway, while thousands more streamed past them and on to flights scheduled for later times.
Fans were told that the Airbus A321 had a technical fault and engineers appeared to spend some time working on one of the wheels.
When boarding did begin at 3.40pm, there was a cheer worthy of the Stade de France.
The delay happened on the same day that the European Court of Justice declared that airlines should have to compensate passengers for delays of more than eight hours.
Aer Lingus was unavailable for comment.
kdoyle@herald.ie
- Kevin Doyle
