Air France was yesterday ordered to pay three passengers £750 each after they lost two days of a holiday to Cuba because of a missed connecting flight.
Ms Katriona Walsh and Mr Patrick Cullen, both of Saint Agnes Road, Crumlin, and Mr Derek Doran, Whitehall Road, Crumlin, claimed they had been treated disgracefully by the airline on their package trip to Havana last year.
The Dublin Small Claims Court heard the three were among 18 people on the trip. They flew from Dublin to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris for a connecting flight to Cuba.
But, Ms Walsh told the court, the flight out of Dublin was delayed and when they arrived at Charles de Gaulle they were told they were too late to board the connecting flight although the plane was still on the runway.
They were told they would have to go to Orly Airport and had to do so on public transport, a journey which took five hours. When they got to Orly, they were told they would have to come back the next day.
They were put up in a hotel but when they returned the next day to Orly, the staff there did not know anything about them. Eventually, they were flown by another airline to Havana. "The treatment was just appalling," Ms Walsh said.
When they came home, all that Air France offered them in compensation was a £75 voucher, usable only on flights valued at £250.
Mr Doran said Air France had claimed the problem was due to an air traffic controllers' strike. But there was no evidence of a strike either at Dublin or Paris.
Judge Michael O'Leary awarded the three complainants their full claims of £750 each.