Plane weighs too much, ITA Airways drops 6 passengers and flight takes off (late)
We have written so many times about overbooked planes with passengers being paid through the nose to delay their departure. However, it was not [...]
ITA Airways
SkyTeam
LIN
We have written so many times about overbooked planes with passengers paid through the nose to postpone departure. However, never happened to write an article talking about passengers left stranded because of weight.
The facts
In this article:
Yesterday, the Az227 flight operated by German Airways. - departing London City Airport at 1:45 p.m. and bound for Milan - suffered a most unusual mishap. London LCY is the city airport of the English capital, the one used mainly by business customers who travel during the day and prefer to land here rather than at the more distant and busy airports, such as Heathrow or Gatwick.
Because of of the size of the runway, only small aircraft can land and take off at this airport. For this reason, ITA Airwyas currently leasing Embraer 190s from German Airways. This plane was also leased for a few months by EGO Airways, a defunct Italian company.
Starting next fall, however, ITA will begin to Use its "jewel" namely the A220.
Yesterday, due to bad weather and with the plane over the safety weight limit of nearly 500kg, it happened that once on board, and buckled up, the captain requested the crew to look for volunteers to lighten the load.
And so it was from the plane's intercom that the request went out, first in English and then in Italian (thanks to the intervention of a journalist who was on board), To find 5 volunteers to drop off along with their suitcases.
Eventually 6 passengers were disembarked from the plane and re-routed by ITA Airways on subsequent flights.
Compensation for inconvenience
The plane took off again and arrived at Linate almost three hours late, while for passengers who arrived in Milan no compensation being The delay within the limits of Directive 261/2004
It is different for passengers who stayed in London. Unfortunately, no one will take a free vacation as is the case in America, with passengers who have also managed to get 8000$ because of overbooking.
In this case, ITA's offer to passengers was the basic €250 in case of denied boarding, to which must be added any reimbursement of expenses for food and/or lodging depending on the type of reprotection.
Of course, in these cases having a Platinum American Express in your pocket would have helped you digest the grounding better And that is why I am happy to have it in my portfolio. In cases like these I am doubly protected and sleep soundly, even with the possibility of buying a last minute ticket and flying to my destination with a different carrier.
