Intrepid travellers overcome volcano air travel crisis

Sarah Saunderson • Published 22 Apr 2010 11:39 0 Comments

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Fermanagh travellers unexpectedly had to cover thousands of miles by sea, rail and road to get home after a cloud of ash from an Icelandic volcano caused a six-day lockdown on our commercial airspace.

While flights are slowly resuming, the logistical difficulties of getting pilots and airplanes in the right place, as well as dealing with the backlog of thousands of passengers, is expected to mean that the travel chaos will not resolve immediately.

While small light aircraft were still able to fly in and out of Enniskillen airport due to flying at a lower altitude to commercial planes, travellers using the commercial carriers out of larger airports found their return from holidays disrupted. Some have been unable to get away from here and cyclists who pedalled to Bielefeld, Enniskillen's twin town in Germany found their return journey almost more fraught than the cycle across the miles.

Below are details of some of the Fermanagh people affected by the ash cloud over the last week.

Nigel Tilson, originally from Wattlebridge, was the only member of his family who managed to make his older brother Brian's wedding in Germany at the weekend. Due to fly last Friday morning, he ended up making the 675 mile journey from his home in Islandmagee to Essen in Germany by car and boat. As the UK Communications Manager for Stena Line he got to sample travelling with the company he works for, taking the HSS Stena sailing from Belfast to Stranraer, then driving all the way though Scotland and England to Harwich from where he sailed, again with Stena Line, to the Hook of Holland. He left his home at 6am on Friday morning and made it to Essen for 11am with just hours to spare. As Groomsman he was required as 12.45pm to be ready for the nuptials at 2pm.

He was the only one out of 11 people due to travel from Northern Ireland who made the wedding. Unfortunately his Fermanagh sisters Heather Tilson and Shirley Baloucoune and her 12-year-old son Robert were unable to make it. "I was quite embarrassed at the Church as I got a round of applause and at the reception, I got a standing ovation," said Nigel. He returned home on Monday night.

As thousands of people look for alternative ways to travel throughout Europe, his company has seen an large upsurge in business as travellers unable to take to the air are taking ferries. "In four days on the Irish Sea, our five routes had an extra 30,000 customers," he said. The busiest route is the HSS out of Belfast to Stranraer. "It has a capacity of 1,500 and it is at capacity every time," he said.

Mark Johnston, originally from Enniskillen and now living in Dublin, was close to the end of a skiing holiday in the French Alps with his wife Lucy and their seven-month-old daughter Sophie when it became apparent that their flight due to leave for Belfast on Saturday was not going to take off. The family ended up having to drive on Saturday from Tignes to Paris, where they stayed overnight and then on to Cherbourg where they had booked passage to Rosslare. In all, the drive covered 1,050 kilometres. "We arrived in Ireland on Monday. The ferry company had held the ferry as there was a late train coming from Paris and decided to wait for the passengers. So the ferry was late getting in to Rosslare and the train was gone as Irish Rail had decided not to wait. There were 200-plus passengers milling around looking for transport to Dublin. Bus Eireann were there waiting and the bus brought us straight to Dublin." In all, with the overnight stop in Paris, the journey took just over 54 hours.

A 496-mile journey by bike from Enniskillen to German twin town Bielefeld may have straight forward but the return for seven of the cyclists was anything but.

Ten members of the local emergency services cycled between the two towns this month to help in the celebration the 150th anniversary of the Fire Service in Germany. All went well on the cycle and they received an amazing reception. But the trouble started when seven out of the ten were due to fly home at the weekend.

Their scheduled flight had been due to take off on Sunday night. The three others, including Crew Commander at Enniskillen Fire Station, Gerry Murphy, were travelling by van back via Amsterdam.

"The other seven had to come home the hard way," he said. "Their whole journey home took about 38 hours. They got back on Monday night. They hired a car from Bielefeld and drove to Calais. They then had to wait and queue to get a ferry to Dover and queued again for a train and got to Holyhead. And then got into Dublin from Holyhead on Monday night".

Conversely, the cycle had gone well. The cyclists pedalled an average of 90 miles a day on the six-day journey.

They cycled to Belfast, before taking the ferry to Stranraer. Then it was on to Annan, then Newcastle and the ferry to Amsterdam. From there it was to Apeldoorn and then to Greven in Germany.

The Chief and Clerk of the Council welcomed them to Bielefeld by cycling the last five kilometres of the route with them.

"Then we went to the fire station in Brackwede where we had a beer reception," said Gerry. The marathon cycle was to help promote the World Police and Fire Games taking place in Belfast in 2013 and to raise awareness of the Organ Donation Register.

Lucy McVey and her two young daughters have had to extend their Easter trip home to see family in Enniskillen by at least a week. Lucy, together with Isabel (2) and baby Emma (seven months) were due to fly home to London out of Belfast International last Friday afternoon. "I knew about what was happening from the news. When I went on-line where you can bring up information on all the flights from different airports, mine wasn't there, even though all the others were saying they were 'cancelled' and offering the option of a refund or the opportunity to book another flight. I did call, I don't know how many times, but I just kept being cut off," Lucy said. It will now be at least three weeks before Lucy's partner Paul will see the children. "We are stuck in limbo. We don't know how long we are going to be here for and if we are going to get home and whether we should start looking at the option of getting boats," she said.

Ten-year-old Mark McKenzie from Coa was due to take part in a press photocall on Tuesday. The Model Primary School pupil was due to receive a prize for winning a Letter Writing competition organised by Royal Mail but has had the event postponed as he and his mother have been unable to fly home from waht was to be a week-long break over the Easter holidays in the Canaries. Mark and his mother Margaret were on holiday in Lanzarote and due to fly back last Thursday. "We don't really know when they will get home. I would be surprised if it is more than a couple of days," said Mark's father Gordon. "They have been moved into a five star hotel with jacuzzi and spa so I don't think it's reason to complain!" he said. "I suppose initially it was difficult as they had to keep going to reception every couple of hours and told to be on stand-by to leave but since then they have extended the time periods when they have to check to see if they are leaving," he said.

Clare Maguire, Proprietor of Burrendale Day Nursery in Enniskillen, was expecting to be back home in Enniskillen last night (Wednesday) after a journey that began in Rome on Sunday and involved a 22-hour taxi drive across Europe costing €1,700.

On what was meant to be a short break in the Italian capital with her friend Aileen Moynagh, who presents Traffic and Travel news on Radio Ulster, the flight chaos has added about £1,000 to the cost of their trip.

They were due to fly out of Rome on Sunday, having arrived last Wednesday, but realised the day before departure that their planned flight home was not going to happen.

Having booked the ferry from Cherbourg to Rosslare, they faced "pandemonium" at the train station in Rome in an attempt to get a train to France. "It was like something out of a horror film. There were just queues going round and round. I queued for two hours when a porter came round and said that there would be no trains to northern Europe until April 26," she said.

They looked at the option of buying a car due to the high taxi prices. "But you can't buy a car in a day so that wasn't going to work. When we were ringing round for taxis were being quoted €2,000 to €3,000". Together with a couple from Galway, they found a driver who would take them to Cherbourg for €1,700.

However, it was not the most relaxed journey. "It was the taxi ride from hell. It was the worst 22 hours of my life.

He liked to drive in the middle of the road and stop in the middle of roundabouts to look at signs. He was controlling his taxi firm with four phones that kept going off," she laughed. In spite of the difficult journey, she was in good spirits and full of praise for the help they received at their hotel.

"The people in the hotel were so helpful," she said. Their taxi journey began at 3.30 pm on Sunday and ended at 1.30pm on Monday with the driver catching only just over an hour's sleep.

They stayed on Monday night in Cherbourg, travelling by ferry to Ireland on Tuesday. They got the train to Dublin where she was to collect her car before getting home yesterday.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 22 Apr 10

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