“This is typical of a banana country. “Here football takes precedence over everything and everyone,” protested one of the 80 passengers who had just lost their place on the last flight from Vigo to Madrid on Saturday evening. The complaint at the claims counter of the company Air Nostrum described a surreal situation between daze and indignation: Minutes earlier, these passengers were queuing to board, but suddenly the airport’s public address system announced that a charter flight would take off first from the same company and in which The Sevilla Fútbol Club team was preparing for the trip, having played that afternoon against Celta de Vigo at the Balaídos Stadium. Two planes were waiting side by side for both passengers, but the travelers on the way to Madrid became alarmed when they saw that the football expedition had accessed not the charter plane, but the airliner that was theoretically supposed to take them to the capital.
At that moment the loudspeaker system came on again and announced that the flight to Madrid had been cancelled. Someone decided that the plane that was supposed to fly this route would fly to Seville with the football team and at half capacity. The other aircraft, the charter plane originally intended for the players, which remained parked there, had suffered a breakdown and was declared “unfit to fly” by Air Nostrum. The company, which has a franchise agreement for regional flights with Iberia, believes that all it has left is an apology for the incident. “We deeply regret the harm caused to passengers as a result of an unfortunate mistake that is entirely attributable to Air Nostrum. Every passenger will be contacted next week to compensate them for the inconvenience caused,” it said in a statement.
The Sevilla footballers board the plane, in a picture taken from inside the terminal by the passengers who were unable to fly.
Those affected were offered accommodation in a nearby hotel and were summoned again this Sunday at half past eight in the morning at the Vigo terminal to take the bus to Madrid, where they arrived after three in the afternoon. “They told us that there would be no planes taking off from Vigo on Sunday morning and so we had to take the bus, but in the end one went from Vueling to Barcelona and another from Air Europa went to Madrid,” says Lucía Lois, one of those affected. There were just over 40 people. The rest of the passengers, looking for alternatives so as not to lose connections, which in some cases even went across the ocean, piled into taxis on Saturday to brave the dawn storm and cover the 600 kilometers they would have traveled from Barajas separated. The aim of the majority is to jointly file a class action lawsuit against Air Nostrum, which includes the payment of compensation.
The Sevilla footballers arrived at their homes at 1 a.m. and carried out “recovery training” in the sports city of the capital Seville on Sunday morning, according to official information from the club. On Wednesday they play a Champions League game in London.
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