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Ports of Jersey has apologised for disruption at the airport on Liberation Day and launched an investigation into what happened, after a family was left stranded on a plane for 1½ hours as they waited for wheelchair assistance in a "really poor end to a lovely holiday".
Rory Steel was returning from a holiday with his wife and children, Ava (13) and Corban (8), who both use wheelchairs.
The flight from Heathrow to Jersey departed half-an-hour late and landed in Jersey at 20:48, with a 20-minute delay.
Mr Steel said passengers got up, ready to leave, but were not able to disembark as the ground staff were dealing with another flight.
He said the incident "was a really poor end to a lovely holiday", adding that his family did not travel often because of the logistics involved.
Mr Steel said: "The last part of that journey put a damp squib on it. It was really disappointing."
An hour a half waiting for ground crew to bring a wheelchair for us to get off the plane @JERairport. Been on this plane 3.5hrs for a 35min flight @britishairways. Not the flight or ground crews fault. All super helpful & apologetic, bad operational management for sure. Furious. pic.twitter.com/rAtJDJn7Pu
— Rory Steel (@JerseyITGuy) May 9, 2023
Though the BA crew on the night was very apologetic, he said he had not heard anything from the Airport or Ports of Jersey.
Mr Steel, who is used to travelling with his children and using airports’ special-assistance services, said that he had not experienced these problems elsewhere.
"We’ve just come back from Majorca, where they have got 14 people in yellow shirts helping you through the airport.
"It’s just that last leg that’s an issue. It just seems that accessibility isn’t given the priority [in Jersey].
"We travel to lots of different places and people bend over backwards, and we don’t seem to get the same here."
Pictured - from left: Claire, Corban, Ava and Rory Steel. (Rob Currie)
Another passenger, Michael Blampied, was also disappointed in the service received after arriving from Heathrow.
In a letter of complaint to Ports of Jersey shared with Express, he wrote: "My wife and I were passengers on the... flight which touched down at 20:47. Steps to the aircraft to allow us to disembark were not positioned until 21:19 - due we were told to a shortage of ground crew.
"We were probably in the air from Heathrow for probably the same time that we were waiting to exit the aircraft in Jersey!
"From my perusal of the arrival schedules the previous aircraft to land was at 19:54. Suffice to say the airport was not busy by any stretch of the imagination. The baggage carousel carrying the bags from our aircraft finally kicked into action at 22:03. We left the airport at 22:12 - one hour and 25 minutes after touching down."
"This is nothing short of lamentable and reflects appallingly on our island," he added.
A spokesperson for Swissport said: "We are sincerely sorry for the delay experienced by passengers.
"A number of flights arriving at the same time, and poor weather, exacerbated some resource challenges, but we are working with our airline partners and the Airport to continuously improve turnaround times."
Matt Thomas, Chief Executive of Ports of Jersey, said: "We sincerely apologise to those passengers arriving at Jersey Airport who did not experience acceptable service levels.
"We are deeply disappointed by feedback that we have received and both we and our airline partners are committed to delivering the highest levels of service."
He continued: "We have launched an investigation to understand what happened, and the matter has been escalated to Swissport, who deliver ground handling on behalf of our airlines.
"However, as a matter of urgency, we are reviewing the contingency and resilience plans of our key business partners as we ramp up volumes for the summer season."
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