AER LINGUS HAS apologised to customers who remain at Lisbon Airport after their flight to Cork was cancelled last night.

Aer Lingus flight EI 891 from Lisbon to Cork Airport was due to depart last night at 10.45pm. 

Passengers had boarded the aircraft and remained on board until 1am when they were asked to disembark by crew as the flight would not be departing the airport due to a technical issue. 

One passenger told TheJournal.ie that passengers slept overnight at Lisbon Airport and that there had been little communication from Aer Lingus in relation to the situation. 

“We were on board until 1am when we were asked to disembark with the promise of a bus to a hotel but when we got off the ground staff company called Ground Force knew nothing about it,” said Ken Hickey.

Everyone slept on floors of airport and got nothing until 11.45am this morning when we got a lunch voucher.

A number of passengers have also taken to Twitter to vent frustration with the airline and what they say has been a lack of proper communication. Hickey said that many passengers are angry over the situation. 

New flight 

Aer Lingus text passengers this morning at 8.30am to advise them that their flight to Cork would depart today at 2pm.

The airline has since sent another text update this afternoon stating that as a result of “airport and Air Traffic Control slot restrictions” the flight will be further delayed, with departure now scheduled for 7.50pm tonight. 

The airline text passengers apologising for the “on-going disruption you are experiencing in Lisbon (LIS) airport”. Aer Lingus said it was “doing all we can to operate this flight as early as possible”.  

Passengers have been informed that there will be no catering service on the rescheduled flight and that their handling agent Groundforce would issue passengers with vouchers at check-in. 

In a statement, a spokesperson for Aer Lingus apologised for the delay and the fact that customers had to sleep overnight at the airport. 

“While our Guest Relations team sought to book hotel accommodation for disrupted guests, availability was extremely limited in the Lisbon region due to a large-scale event taking place there,” the spokesperson said. 

Regrettably some guests had to overnight at the airport – those guests who managed to secure their own accommodation will be reimbursed accordingly. 

“We sincerely apologise to guests for the inconvenience caused but we wish to assure them that our teams are doing all they can to resolve the situation as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson said.