Aer Lingus ‘Mystery Flight’ among 13 flights cancelled at Dublin Airport so far today
Six Aer Lingus flights, including a “Mystery Flight” are among 13 trips which have been cancelled at Dublin Airport today.
The airline was forced to cancel two return trips due to depart this afternoon from Dublin and return this evening, due to Covid-related staff illness – the EI642/643 to Prague and the EI656/657 to Frankfurt.
The EI115/114 return to Philadelphia was also cancelled due to technical issues.
A 1.30pm ‘Mystery Flight’ also appeared on the cancellation information for a time this morning.
The 12pm Eurowings flight from Dublin to Cologne Bonn, EW397, the 4.44pm British Airways flight to London, BA829 and the 10.50pm Flyone flight to Chisinau, Moldova, FIA712 are also not going ahead.
Meanwhile, the 11.15am Eurowings flight from Cologne Bonn, EW 396, the 4pm British Airways flight from London, BA830 and the 10.05pm Flyone flight from Chisinau, Moldova, FIA711 have also been cancelled.
Aer Lingus has attributed recent cancellations to “operational reasons”, as it continues to deal with Covid-19 cases among staff and industrial action abroad.
Independent.ie contacted Aer Lingus for information on the destination of the ‘Mystery Flight’ today, but the airline did not shed further light on what it meant. It has since disappeared from the cancellation updates and it is unclear whether it was in reference to one of the other cancelled flights.
The Indo Daily: Dublin Airport – Flight chaos to last all summer. What's going wrong and what are your rights?
The airline said: “Due to a spike in Covid cases, Aer Lingus has been forced to cancel two return flights today, Sunday 10th July.
“Additionally due to a technical issue one return flight has been cancelled today, Sunday 10th July.
“Just over 1% of Aer Lingus flights have been impacted by cancellations in June and July.
“Aer Lingus wishes to apologise to those impacted and teams at the airline are working to re-accommodate impacted passengers on the next available services as efficiently as possible. Impacted passengers will be contacted directly by Aer Lingus.”
Independent.ie also revealed in recent days, that the airline is now using a “third party” to fly some routes.
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Hundreds of passengers have had their holiday plans thrown into disarray, with Aer Lingus cancelling 11 flights between Friday and Saturday.
Some Aer Lingus customers have been emailed about changes to their flights, informing them they will be taken to their chosen destination by a different carrier.
In one email, Aer Lingus told a customer who was due to fly within days, that: “Due to operational reasons your flight… will now be operated by Privilege Style on our behalf.
“Check-in for your flight will remain at the Aer Lingus check-in desks."
Privilege Style is a Spanish private airline that operates globally but it has no ties to Aer Lingus.
The Aer Lingus email detailed that the company was “confident the service you receive from Privilege Style pilots and cabin crew will be to the same high standards our customers expect from us. Privilege Style meets all Aer Lingus safety standards".
An Aer Lingus spokesperson said the airline had: “Anticipated the return of demand for travel once Covid restrictions were removed and built appropriate buffers into our plans in order to deal with a reasonable level of additional disruption.”
They added: “Occasionally we will hire additional capacity using third party operators to avoid disruption to our customers.”
Passengers using various airlines have also reported lost luggage at Dublin Airport, including one Air Canada passenger who is still trying to find her baggage that contains her parents’ ashes.
A spokesperson for the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) said it is aware of issues that some arriving passengers are facing with baggage return, but that is looked after by the airlines.
“We empathise with those affected and regret that these issues are impacting their passenger experience.
“We are liaising very closely with both the airlines and their ground handling companies in relation to these issues, the root of which lies in the significant staff hiring challenges that are facing all companies operating in the aviation sector currently.”
Since Wednesday, July 6, the Defence Forces have been on standby at the airport, and will continue to do so for the next six weeks for the busy summer period. Defence Forces staff will only be deployed to the airport if more than 20pc of security staff are off due to Covid-19.
However, reports of long queues at the airport’s security checkpoints and outside the terminal buildings have reduced significantly in recent weeks.
It comes DAA has confirmed that more than 2.8 million passengers travelled through the airport last, which was its busiest month since before the Covid-19 pandemic began.
Over 12 millions passengers have passed through the facility in the last six months.
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