flight diverted

A question about : flight diverted

Having just returned from the Gambia on a package tour I feel that I must let someone know what some tour operators are up to.

It started as my wife and I went to the check in, a sheet of paper was pushed in front of us and we were greeted with the words “read this” having been at the airport since 4.45am it was a little difficult to comprehend.
Having boarded the aircraft it became apparent that we would not be flying direct to Banjul as booked but would be diverted to Fuerteventura one of the Canary Islands, the reason being to replace a sick crew member in Banjul, take off was at 8.40am some 30 minutes late, having landed in Fuerteventura the ground crew went to work on refueling the aircraft three additional crew members joined us and it was about an hour before we were back in the air we eventually landed in Banjul about 4.20pm.

Once at our resort it also became apparent from regular travellers to Gambia that the refueling in the Canary Islands has become a regular occurrence over the past months and not for the numerous excuses that the tour operator is continuously telling their customers but solely down to the fuel costs in the Gambia.

Can anyone advise please

Best answers:

• There are serious fuel shortages in Banjul, the aircraft used cannot tanker sufficient fuel from the UK to make the return trip, therefore they have to stop en route and refuel. No airline wants to do this as they have to pay landing fees twice but it certainly appears to me to be a good reason to refuse to pay compensation
• Even though they are being dishonest to their paying customers.
• Well, I wouldn't waste money or time trying to be honest. There is nothing to say what the letter handed to the passenger actually said other than 'read this' The fuel shortages, which also affect petrol for cars, are clearly outside the airlines control and the fact that everything they spoke to said their flight had to do the same, i.e. refuel along the way, suggests this wasn't just an issue for this particular departure.
• Unless of course this was say a Monarch flight where for operational reasons the airline were using a smaller Airbus due to a shortage in their fleet. Seems to me if the airline or indeed their handling agents/fuel suppliers did not make adequate provision for the flight in terms of aircraft or fuel then they could well be liable.
• Do fuel shortages mean that it is impossible to refuel in Banjul, or rather than it is cheaper and more convenient to refuel elsewhere? If the latter, this in an operational decision by the airline, for which the passenger should be compensated (IMHO).
• If its a regularly thing i dont understand why the airlines dont just adjust their predicted arrival time? save any hassle for customers or paying compensation??
• We don't know how late the OP was at Banjul? They state they left the UK around 30 minutes late and had around an hour fuel stop in the Canaries...
  OP only states they arrived at Banjul at 4:20pm. The crucial information omitted is what time the scheduled arrival at Banjul was? I only make 1 hour 30mins delay so far?
• Hi All
  Just to clear up a few things the letter handed to my wife and I did not say "read this" that was the greeting we were met with from the check in staff I did not actually read it myself but my wife told me that it informed us of our diversion, I now wish that I had taken an image of it with my phone. As for a fuel shortage I find that hard to believe as the roads are full off traffic and the local trip organizers are running trips all over Gambia and Senegal and other airlines are refueling at Banjul, It seems to be just Thomas Cook that are diverting to the Canary Islands on the way out and then doing a complete turn around with the new crew members that they are picking up.
  We should have arrived at 14.40 so it would not have been 3 or more hours late
  This has been going on for several months according to British people that live in the Gambia and are frequent travelers with T/C.
• Just for clarity, cars on the streets etc use an incredibly different fuel than jet airliners, so that's absolutely irrelevant, as are local trips in prop-based craft. It's entirely possible to have loads of one and not the other - take Abu Dhabi for instance where petrol is locally produced and cheap, but diesel is imported!
  Maybe a short delay beats adding a fuel surcharge to the holiday?
• Perhaps to do with the fact that they are retiring 757s and replacing with A321s? I'm not sure an A321 would have the legs for Banjul? Or perhaps not with certain weather conditions, hence the need for a fuel diversion.
  Unfortunately for the OP a less than 3 hour delay means no compensation. Poor customer service giving conflicting stories as to the reason for the diversion? Yes. But given that there's no compensation due the reason is academic and could indeed be for the sheer fun of it!
• Compensation is not an issue the fact of the matter is that T/C are being very dishonest to the customers that are filling their bank accounts
• Are they really being dishonest? If they were embarking a replacement crew member for a sick one then they were not. The fact that they took the opportunity to refuel whilst there is totally irrelevant whether it was a "common occurance" or not. In actual fact, if they are on a long haul flight like that then they would need to refuel anyway because an airliner uses about 10% of their fuel climbing to cruising altitude. This would account for 20% of the fuel needed for the trip. What would the OP prefer, enough fuel to divert in the event of a problem or a crash landing in the Sahara? What about if their return flight was grounded because there was no fuel to be had in Banjul, would they now be asking why the plane didn't stop en route to refuel (!!!!!! the people on that flight delayed)?
  I think of life on this planet as team-work: we put up with minor inconveniences so that other people don't have to suffer a major problem. In this case just putting yourself in the shoes of the people waiting for your plane to land so they can go home makes complaining about the mild inconvenience of a stop seem petty IMO.
• The fact of the matter is that I and many more T/C customers over several months have booked direct flights to Banjul and have been given numerous excuses as to why the flights are being diverted, so yes I do believe that T/C are being dishonest. life on this planet is defiantly not team work as you will see in the media every day it is a life of deceit and dishonesty, I would like to be on your planet
• At the end of the day you got to Banjul 1 hour and 40 minutes late.
  Move on with your life and just remember the (hopefully) great holiday you had in Gambia.