Flyglobespan surrenders safety licence for short route to US
Tuesday January 15 2008
KNOCK Airport's transAtlantic partner Flyglobespan has voluntarily surrendered the safety certification that allows it to fly the shortest route to the US.
The move comes just months after Flyglobespan won back the licence after the UK's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) suspended it on foot of safety concerns.
However this time Irish passengers will be spared delays of up to an hour because the airline's Irish routes only run in the summer and won't resume until May.
A Flyglobespan spokesman told the Irish Independent he was "fully confident" of having the licence restored by then. "This is a very minor thing really, we hope to have it all sorted out in a few months and definitely before May," he added.
Based in Scotland, Flyglobespan's Irish operations include flights from Knock to Boston and New York and soon-to-be launched flights from Dublin to Calgary and Vancouver.
The airline's Irish outfit most notably hit the headlines last June when more than 200 Knock-bound passengers were left stranded in New York for up a week following technical problems with their plane.
Airline chairman Tom Dalrymple later announced a full enquiry into the fiasco and apologised to passengers affected. "We know we let our customers down in JFK," he admitted. "And we apologise for that, and if they feel they have been let down they have every right to criticise us."
- Laura Noonan
