| TACV and Halcyonair passengers experience days of chaos | ||||
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On September 9 and 10, TACV Cabo Verde Airlines cancelled at least eight flights, leaving more than 400 passengers grounded. Worse off is private airline Halcyonair, which, with its only aircraft grounded with technical problems, has been forced to rent planes from Cabo Verde Express, resulting in enormous constraints for its passengers, especially those on the São Vicente-Sal and São Vicente-Praia routes. The flight delays and cancellations seen over the past several days all over the country have resulted in major losses to airlines and great inconvenience to passengers, who in many cases were left on the ground with no perspective regarding when they were going to be able to travel. In some cases, mainly involving passengers with international connections, there was anger at situations bordering the farcical. “After a great deal of complaints and expressions of anger, first on São Vicente and then on Sal, as passengers had missed their connection to France, TACV put the passengers on a flight to Germany, as if they were giving the poor people a ride in order to shut them up. They had a very hard time in Germany and only managed to make it to France thanks to the intervention of a friendly woman,” says a relative of one of the passengers. “The worst part is that there were passengers with children who weren’t given any assistance whatsoever.” Halcyonair general director Gil Évora explains that the airline has been operating with Cabo Verde Express’s aircrafts since Saturday, which has allowed it to transport its passengers, albeit at an enormous cost to the company. “We have an accord with Cabo Verde Express, which serves as back-up. Our greatest problem is on the São Vicente-Sal and São Vicente-Praia routes. On the others, the situation has returned to normal,” says the official, stressing that this “help” from Cabo Verde Express costs Halcyonair some 400,000 escudos per day. TACV press attaché Carlos Carvalho confirms that the company cancelled eight flights, but preferred to speak of constraints rather than losses. “Of course we had some losses, but mainly we had constraints, because there’s nothing you can do when the problem is atmospheric conditions. The passengers were forced to postpone travel and TACV was forced to make some adjustments in order to be able to transport them. And this is what we’re doing.” |
