Ash cloud sets since Sunday noon paralyzed air traffic in the Balearic Islands. Tui started the night before retrieving action for 540 tourists.
The Spanish state-owned airport operator Aena has stopped on Sunday at noon and air operations at the airport of Palma. Four days after the eruption of the Icelandic volcano sets the ash cloud paralyzed air traffic in the Balearic Islands. In addition to Palma and the airport was set to Menorca. The ban is in northern Spain for the time being to 20 clock gelten.Neben the Balearic Islands (Ibiza apart), the eleven other airports in Barcelona, Girona, Reus, Sabadell, Asturias, Santander, Bilbao, San Sebastián, Vitoria, Pamplona and Logroño closed.
Germany's biggest tour operator TUI had already started in the early hours of Sunday a large Rückholaktion and flown 540 guests from Mallorca to Barcelona. After one night in Barcelona, for TUI took out of goodwill costs, are the guests on Sunday with a bus convoy en route to Germany. A dozen buses will arrive after an estimated travel time of twenty hours a main station in Frankfurt. On board the buses in each case, a German tour guide, and three drivers, so as to fit through round the clock. From Frankfurt train is the free-to-flight-ticket 1st Class for the onward journey.
In parallel, another group organized the trip Rückholaktionen to Europe to bring guests from their holiday home areas. On Gran Canaria started on Sunday morning Tuifly a machine to fly out other guests. The aim of the machine is Alicante on Spain's Costa Blanca, from there is also the onward journey by coach to Frankfurt organized. All machines of the tour operator, which are currently outside of Germany still open airports, are currently being used to fly out other guests.
On the night of Sunday, the lava dust in the stratosphere had spread to the south and the Pyrenees and the Gulf of Lyon and many parts of northern Italy reached.
Palmas Airport on Saturday night were up 303 flights to North and Central Europe have been deleted. Were affected on Saturday alone 50,000 Mallorca travelers.
Affected by the ban on flights in Europe are in Mallorca mainly German and British tourists who wanted to travel home on weekends. People now have an additional two nights in the hotels of the island have to spend. The hotels in Playa de Palma, according to the Hotel Vera band almost fully booked with travelers, the island could not leave as scheduled.
While the package tourists were forced by the situation the paid hotel stay by their travel agents to a gesture of goodwill, had to pay the Direktreisdende the airlines made necessary accommodation from their own pockets.
Airlines, tour operators and hotel changes have, according to a spokeswoman for Hoteliers "extremely" cooperates to provide travelers with information and accommodation.
The tour operators are looking for the claims to ways to transport their guests to alternative routes home. As a way makes sense to bring the people by boat to the Spanish mainland. From there the onward journey by train or by bus is possible.
British visitors to Mallorca, which try to rebook their flight to a later date should expect a prolonged enforced stay of up to one week, as the machines are expected, they start, are already booked out completely.
On Saturday at the Palma airport could take place almost a third of the 504 scheduled flights. It was links to the Spanish mainland and southern Italy. Of the 303 canceled flights, 154, the compounds related to and from Germany. By Saturday evening had in Europe have to turn out 17,000 flights. In Spain, there were 2029th
The hoteliers on the island are very worried. Should stop the current situation continues, this would be a bitter blow for the already battered by the economic crisis already industry.
What travelers should know now
The huge cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland seriously impeded air transport in Europe. The natural phenomenon is considered to be acts of God - and yet can make demands on their package holiday operators, if flights are delayed or ausfallen.Was travelers should know now.
Must be a machine to land, for example, when returning from vacation somewhere other than planned, was the trip to be seen as deficiency, says Sabine Fischer-nation of the Consumer Brandenburg. "Therefore, the tour price will be reduced, for example in the range of around five percent." Here, other issues that concern many holidaymakers now:
Can a trip because of flight chaos simply be canceled?
No, a general right of free cancellation does not exist. Is yet in sight for a short trip that the flight would move into the vacation for several days, the customer can cancel the travel contract and get back to the tour price, said Fischer-people. This also applied to cases of force majeure. For longer trips of two weeks duration, for example, there is however no right of rescission. Also in this case was clearly a late departure but a lack of travel.
Flight may give customers instead of waiting long?
Customers who booked a plane ticket can choose: "From the fifth late hour they have the right to waive the flight." In that case, they must be reimbursed the full fare. "Or they choose a diversion, for example, the next day, says Fischer-people. Which must then be given to them at no extra cost.
Is there compensation for a night at the airport?
No. Passengers could not leave and they had to stay because of the chaotic conditions at the airport, they are not entitled to damages. is "yes you no harm caused in the material sense," said Fischer-people. Basically, the airline is obliged to care for their customers if they accept long waiting times need. This includes, for example, that they must provide them with food and drinks.
Is the machine easy to end up somewhere else?
Although air traffic is restricted for reasons of force majeure, an airline needs to bring the passengers to their destination. Can a machine do not land there and it has to resort to another airport, the airline had a duty to bring guests to their destination by bus, for example, says Fischer-people. Provides an airline not to continue the journey could host this self-organize and represent the cost of bus or train ride in the airline bill.
Who pays for the ride to the front door?
A common misconception is affixed to holiday in such cases, the expectation of the return paid to get home. That is not so: "Both package tourists and customers who book the flight individually, must take care of it himself, from the airport to come to the front door," said Fischer-people.
"I can not simply take a taxi and claim back the costs."
Who pays for long delays returning to the hotel?
In the case of force majeure, there is no claim for refund of accommodation costs, if a passenger who landed at another airport as planned, had to arrive so late in the evening at the original destination airport, that he no longer comes home. "Does he then looking for a hotel, he has" to bear the costs for the declared protector of consumers.