Travel Agent Demands Resignations Over Snow Chaos
Furious Yorkshire travel agent Paul Smith has called for the heads of Transport Secretary Philip Hammond and Heathrow chief executive Colin Matthews for their part in the travel chaos caused by the snow and ice afflicting services at Britain's biggest airport.
Mr Smith, who owns York's Quartz Travel agency, called on the pair to resign after telling travel website TTG that he was "shocked" by what he saw at Heathrow Terminal 4 last night when he turned up to take one of Delta Air Lines cheap flights to the USA.
"It was awful with lots of families and young children having to sleep on the floor. This has happened for the last three years and we still can't cope with a bit of snow," he said.
"We should have contingencies in place for this and the infrastructure should be able to cope. I'm calling for the resignation of the transport secretary and also BAA's Colin Matthews over this because something has to be done."
Whether the most severe winter conditions recorded in 100 years can be adequately described as "a bit of snow" is debatable, but this weekend was certainly the winter of Mr Smith's discontent.
Heathrow's owner BAA said yesterday that the airport was running just 30 per cent of its scheduled services as the second runway remains closed. Flag carrier British Airways was forced to cancel most of its cheap flights to short-haul destinations from the hub and other airlines have faced similar disruption.
For its part, cheap fares airline easyJet has responded with an unprecedented offer – giving passengers who have found their flights disrupted by the weather free transfers to any other airport on the easyJet network. The budget airline said that it was determined to do everything it could to help its customers get home to friends and family this Christmas, including laying on an additional 1,000 cheap flights across Europe during the festive season.
General Travel News posted by 
on 22 December 2010
cheap flights, cheap flights to the USA, cheap fares
http://www.ttglive.com/c/portal/layout?p_l_id=3208370&CMPI_SHARED_articleId=4478174&CMPI_SHARED_ImageArticleId=4478174&CMPI_SHARED_articleIdRelated=4478174&CMPI_SHARED_ToolsArticleId=4478174&CMPI_SHARED_CommentArticleId=4478174&articleTitle=Agent%20condemns%20Heathrow
http://corporate.easyjet.com/media/latest-news/news-year-2010/20-12-2010-en.aspx
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