Thousands of Munster fans affected by Heineken Cup flight diversions

IRISH travel agents have said that they had no role to play in a decision to divert aircraft from Cardiff for the weekend Heineken Cup Final.

Thousands of Munster supporters, who were booked on flights to the Welsh capital for Saturday’s showdown with Biarritz, were informed that they are now flying to Bristol or Birmingham and will be bussed to Cardiff.

Indeed, Paddy Baird of Munster Sports Travel revealed yesterday that his company had to fight tooth and nail before airport authorities allowed the official team flight land in Cardiff.

Said Baird: “It was only after severe pressure, that we got a slot at Cardiff for the team flight.

“They were not budging on it. They have a very strict protocol in place. They do not want a repeat of what happened four years ago.”

In 2002, thousands of fans were stranded into the early hours of Sunday as the airport failed to cope with the influx after the loss to Leicester.

“This was a decision taken by Cardiff Airport,” continued Baird who added that a number of Irish Travel Agents are effected by the news.

“They simply cannot take the number of aircraft which were booked.”

Mr Baird explained that a lot of aircraft were booked prior to the semi-final. However Cardiff officials advised them this week that all those slots could not be accommodated.

“We were advised very late by Cardiff,” he continued. “But I can understand the stance from their point of view. They got a bad name four years ago. But we should have been advised of this protocol when the bookings were being made.

“But we (Irish Tour operators) only found out this week and are now advising our customers that some flights are being diverted to Bristol and Birmingham. Now we are doing our best to accommodate everyone as best we can and trying to make sure that all the planes fit into the schedule.”