Fan in Paris travel ordeal
A LIVERPOOL fan was “devastated” yesterday when his flight to France for the Champions League final was cancelled, leaving him in “limbo” at an airport for six hours.
Keenan Downey, from Anglesey, and his father Leslie arrived at Liverpool John Lennon Airport at 1.30am yesterday, hoping to catch a 4am flight to Paris.
But they were among scores of fans who faced lengthy delays after a flight cancellation.
Mr Downey, 25, who travelled from North Wales, says the flight was rescheduled to depart at 5.45am but was cancelled.
He was then told there was no flights left at 3.30am, leaving him “stood around helpless”, before he finally boarded a rescheduled flight at 9.40am.
The pair booked the flights through World Choice Sports, which sells packages to sporting events, for about £1,300.
Prior to boarding the plane, he said: “I’m not even confident that we will get out there at the moment.
“I have got the boarding pass in my hand but until we are sat in that seat and we are taking off I won’t be confident that we’ll get there. It is pretty crazy.”
He added: “It is my first-ever final.
“My old man, he is fortunate, this will be his third. But this is my first and I am just devastated. I’m not certain we will be going.
“The biggest worry is getting home of course, although if we win I won’t be worrying about that.”
Calls to World Choice Sports are greeted by a recorded statement saying: “If your flight has been cancelled, please accept our apologies as it was due to matters out of our control.
“Please rest assured we will be refunding you in full in the next few days. Once again, we are sorry for any inconvenience caused.”
A spokesperson for the company said: “We had an issue with two aircraft which were cancelled by the airline at the last minute.
“We worked all day and most of the evening yesterday and managed to secure enough seats across two airlines to carry most of our passengers. We had to cancel approximately 80 passengers and we booked a number of them at the airport on other carriers. Some also chose to have a refund as they did not have match tickets.”