From 19:05 on Sunday evening, the 170 passengers of Corendon Airlines flight XC5078 to Ankara were already allowed to check in. At 21:05 they would take off with a Corendon Airbus A320. The next morning they still have not left and Corendon is unreachable. The passengers are furious and the atmosphere at the airport is grim. “We are going to block the entrance and ensure that all flights are cancelled.“
From 17:00 on Sunday afternoon, the first passengers of the flight to Ankara already checked in. In mid-June, it was announced that this flight would move from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport to Rotterdam The Hague Airport because of new caps on flights from the Durch capital.
The 170 passengers have been waiting since Sunday evening. At around 20:30, they were told that the flight would be cancelled. “After some protest, Corendon wanted to arrange a hotel for the people who do not live in the area,” says one of the passengers. “The people who do come from the neighbourhood had to go home.”
While waiting, the passengers would not have been given any food, but they did receive bottles of water from the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee.
On Monday morning, the plane would still depart at 08:00 and travellers were expected at the airport at 06:00 in the morning. When they arrived, there was no plane at all. The travellers jointly decide to take action. “People are angry and there is shouting inside. We are going to block the entrance and ensure that all flights are cancelled. Only then will they really hear us and get into trouble themselves.” And the atmosphere is indeed grim. “Half an hour more and the windows will go out,” a passenger shouts.
Half of the passengers are outside in front of the entrance and the other half are blocking the check-in counter. “We find it very annoying for the people who want to catch their flight, but we need to be heard. We are the victims of this situation.”
“We have now heard that we will probably fly tomorrow morning,” says one of the passengers. “There is no certainty and nothing is certain. We feel cheated by Corendon.”
Rotterdam The Hague Airport reports that the flight has been moved by Corendon Airlines International to 10:00 on Tuesday morning. “We advise people to leave the airport. Go home or go to a hotel.” Corendon is responsible for further communication with the passengers and for arranging accommodation if any. “I have not seen a flight so delayed in 2.5 years. It is vacation time. Unfortunately, this happens.”
Plane stranded in Germany
The cause of the delay is the Corendon plane that departed three hours late from Ankara to Rotterdam on Sunday. Due to noise regulations, passenger planes are not allowed to land at Rotterdam The Hague Airport after 23:00.
This Airbus A320 registered 9H-MMO was en route as flight XC5077 from Ankara towards Rotterdam on Sunday evening but it diverted to Münster when it was clear they couldn’t land at Rotterdam before 23:00
The plane from Ankara, therefore, had to divert to Münster airport. Buses left there to transport the 170 passengers to Rotterdam The Hague Airport. At 04:00 they arrived at Rotterdam airport.
Two hours after landing, the aircraft flew back empty to Ankara under flight number CAI507P. Corendon has thus to find another aircraft to carry the passengers stranded in Rotterdam.
Source: Rijnmond and Flightradar24
