Helping To Calm The Ryanair Chaos At Stansted Airport

With today’s news that some of the Ryanair compensation cheques for their recent flight disruption have bounced, landing their customers with extra admin fees, it appears that low-cost flights are not always as cheap as they seem.

For I Love meet and greet’s customers at Stansted Airport, however, the airport parking part of their journey was managed with the flexibility and adaptability to be expected from the most experienced airport parking team in the UK. This is why it is essential when booking Stansted airport parking to check that your operator has the infrastructure to handle unexpected delays and disruptions.

Stansted Airport

Travellers using Stansted Airport have been severely inconvenienced since July, with pilot strikes, air traffic control issues and even thunderstorms causing many cancelled flights. At one point, the Daily Express reported that there were 1,000 bags of luggage which had to be removed from the baggage areas and returned to customers. The Independent showed the issue was spreading from Stansted to other airports by publishing images of empty planes at several airports and Ryanair workers protesting across Europe, often using the slogan ‘RYANAIR MUST CHANGE’ on t-shirts and placards.

The I Love Response

Obviously, our customers were expecting to either drop their car with us on the forecourt or at our car park and then go on to enjoy their holiday. Unfortunately for many of our customers their plans were totally changed by circumstances beyond their control.

Our team is trained to handle these types of issues and we have an excellent track record of dealing with major disruptions in a sympathetic and professional way. On a daily basis, we see customers missing flights and needing to change their bookings, so we fully understand how travel plans can change. We also appreciate how distressing delays and disruptions can be, so we make sure we provide as much flexibility as possible.

How We Helped

With customer service representatives at our Head Office briefed and ready to take calls and our team of drivers at Stansted Airport ready to provide extra assistance, we were prepared for this situation.

We made sure we were present and available to provide help where it was needed; whether that was delivering a meet and greet customer’s car back to him 10 minutes after we had collected it or whether it was extending a park and ride customer’s parking by an extra day as they caught an alternative flight.

If customers with cancelled flights wanted to return home, we made sure they were re-united with their cars and we refunded their bookings. Some customers even organised flights with a return to Gatwick Airport so we arranged for their car to be transferred.

Alongside customers waiting to have their luggage returned, there were still returning customers who needed to be collected by minibus or met on the forecourt, so we faced a huge logistical challenge to continue to provide a punctual service. Luckily our senior management team has a combined 100+ years in airport parking at Stansted Airport and we have procedures in place to deploy extra resources when needed.

Tips To Survive Flight Disruption

Over the years we have been given some great advice on how to cope when your flights are delayed:

♥ Make sure you arrive early

♥ Have a fully charged phone

♥ Take out travel insurance

♥ Stay hydrated

Conclusion

We would also recommend for travellers to always get in touch with your provider of Stansted airport parking when you are in a situation like this – give them as much detail as you can and they, as professionals, will be able to advise on the best course of action. It is likely that if they have the same experience and track record as I Love meet and greet, that they will have seen issues like this before and are prepared for such circumstances.

By Sarah Anglim at 22 Aug 2018