Will get everybody home by Christmas
It looks like today Icelandair has caught up with the schedule and managed to get all the waiting passengers to their destination. mbl.is/Árni Sæberg
“We are focusing on trying to get everyone to their destination before Christmas and it looks like it’s going to work,” said Icelandair’s information officer Guðni Sigurðsson yesterday, on how the plan is being re-established after the closure Reykjanesbraut, the road to the airport, earlier this week.
“There are not many people left who don’t have a new itinerary yet, and we are on course to be back to normal activities tomorrow,” Sigurðsson stated at the same time.
Something cases of overbooking
Mbl.is received indications that passengers had been booked on overbooked flights and could not get on the plane, and Sigurðsson said that such cases had occurred.
“Because of the speed required to find flights for the passengers, there were cases of overbooking. In most cases, all passengers got on the plane, but in a few instances some passengers were not able to get on the flight and were transferred to another flight.”
Two wide-body jets chartered
To get flight plans right after the shutdown, which affected about 24 thousand passengers of Icelandair, the company leased two wide-body jets, among other things. One of the Boeing 777 – 200, taking 312 passengers and the other Airbus 330 – 300, taking 436 passengers. By comparison, the Boeing 757 – 200 engines of Icelandair take 184 passengers.
One of the wide body jets Icelandair leased to be able to get all the passengers to their home before Christmas and catch up to their schedule after the canceled flights. mbl.is/Þorgeir Baldursson
Sigurðsson says the wide-body jets have been useful in catching up to schedule.
“We got in these bigger planes to work faster on this. At Christmas time, our planes are packed and during the time of the disruption, we try to use the flights available to get passengers to their destination. There is little room when it’s booked heavily. So we decided to charter these two big jets, and it has worked out very well,” he stated.
In addition, staff, who were not supposed to be working, have been called into crews and Sigurðsson said that the staff responded very well to that.
Tracking the weather in the US
Asked if any measures have been taken because of the weather warnings issued in 48 states in the US forecasting extremely cold weather for Christmas cold, Sigurðsson stated that the situation will be monitored and acted upon if necessary.
“We’ll monitor the situation and notify passengers if there are any changes.” The situation is as it stands now, and everyone is expected to be at their destinations by Christmas.
