World Cup Semi Final: Passengers Demand Compensation From Air Companies
So Spain are the World Champions after beating the Dutch in extra time at the World Cup Final in South Africa. But the competition wasn’t all smiles for a lot of Spanish fans who’d made the trip over to SA, as around 600+ were unable to get to the Spain vs Germany after flights were delayed or cancelled altogether after heavy congestion at South Africa’s King Shaka airport.
According to reports, the congestion was down to an increase in private jets as stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Paris Hilton, flew in to the airport, as well as FIFA officials, South Africa’s president Jocob Zuma and Spain’s King Juan Carlos.
The plans caryring the famous faces ignored directives to land at a different Durban airport, which they were directed to in order to free airport parking spots for normally scheduled flights.
Some fans had spent up to $1,300 for tickets to the World Cup Semi Final, only to find that they were unable to get to the stadium to watch the game. The South African airport management company ACSA (Airports Company South Africa), has now said it has put aside $52,000 to reimburse the passengers who were forced to miss games.
What’s not clear however is whether or not this amount is enough to compensate the passengers, as many have said that missing that game completely ruined their holiday.
Debbie, a Spanish fan who lives in England, had this to say
It’s not as if these flight are all we spent money on to see these games. We couldn’t afford the final so flew out just for the quarter and semi finals. Yeah they can pay us what we spent on the internal flight, but what about the hotel costs? Or the Manchester airport parking for the last fortnight? Or travel insurance? Or the price of the tickets, which we couldn’t use, or the fact we were stuck here with nothing to do and nowhere to go. It’s not fair that these famous people just get to do what they want.”
