Flights back on time after power outage disruptions

FLIGHTS at Dublin and Shannon airports were back on track last night after disruptions due to the power blackouts which caused chaos in some eastern cities in North America.

Several thousand passengers travelling from Canada and the US had their travel plans put on hold after airport services were caught up in the power outage.

“Most of the transatlantic flights landed this morning,” said an Aer Rianta spokesperson. “There was no problem with the flights from Boston, Philadelphia, Newark and Atlanta.”

But an Air Canada flight was cancelled and two charters from Toronto to Dublin were four and seven hours late respectively.

It was mostly in-bound flights from Canada and New York to this country which were affected.

An Aer Lingus spokesperson said about 1,300 of its passengers were affected by the disruptions.

However, five out-bound flights by the national carrier left for US destinations on time yesterday. These were the Dublin-NY/JFK 10.30, the Shannon-Boston 14.00, the Dublin-Chicago 14.45, Dublin-Los Angeles 11.45 and Dublin-Baltimore 13.30.

Flight EI 133 from Dublin to Boston was delayed and didn’t leave until 15.00, while EI 104 from New York, due in Dublin at 06.45, didn’t arrive until 12.40. Finally, EI 112 from New York to Shannon was delayed until 17.30.