Tonyt,
For more info on the delayed Faro - Gatwick flight, see the Faro forum on tripadvisor.com

Looks like they have had another disastrous weekend.Just been reading on another site ,Excel have had mega delays all over the place even bussing passengers to manchester from east midlands for a palma flight.

Some of the problems appear to stem from the elderly MD80 that they have chartered for this summer to do the flights from East Mids.Seems the only thing its good for is breaking down!!! (Its the same plane used by Air Scandic last year and look what happened there)

Although Aircraft breakdowns cant be forseen,the exception will be where they are using a less than reliable aircraft that is prone,more than most,to go `tech`.A good solicitor using this kind of information might just be successful at court.
In the meantime my thoughts and sympathies to all those caught up in this sort of situation.

Just returned from Rhodes flew with Excel and cannot fault them 100%

hallelujah! at last - someone with no complaints about excel. we are flying out in just over 2 weeks time with them and to be honest after what i have read on here about delays - i am absolutely dreading using them! only time will tell lol. just keep your fingers crossed for us - with two kids in tow and supposedly arriving early morning in cyprus it could well be a disastrous flight for us!

We have booked to go to Kos from Manchester (flight only) on 17th June for two weeks We have used this airline several time before a couple of years ago so we have our fingers crossed - anbron

Hello everyone we are back from Kos flying with Excel Outbound flight bang on time pleasant staff food good by airline standards Return journey approx 45mins delay but once more good staff and food good for airline food I have had some really awful airline food this was ok not 5* hotel standard but certainly acceptable Perhaps we are lucky but we have never had any complaints about this airline We stayed in Kos town/Lambi at the Alice Springs Hotel but I can not find it listed in the hotel reviews to write a review - anbron

HI

my mom has flown with excel twice this summer already to fly out to see me in turkey and had no problems, no delays 100% brilliant.
i feel for those who have had problems but they are not all that bad.

sarah

we have travelled with excel a number of time and have never been delayed until this time we were delayed 4 hours from dalaman to manchester nobody to tell us why just no info at all untill we eventuly got on the plain and the captin said it was a new air craft and some of the soft ware hade malfuntioned and it took 2 hours to down load it again other than that good flight lovely plane plesant staff just hope it doesnt happen to often

Lindie,
as a software developer (although not for mission critical equipment such as aircraft) I can offer the following professional opinion of the captain......

He's a plonka !

If he's correct in as much as the software was malfunctioning, downloading new software implies to me that you "beta" tested the "new" software whilst flying.

Generally, software that malfunctions is likely to malfunction again when downloaded unless the new version fixes the problem that was identified. If a problem WAS identified then why the hell wasn't the aircraft and all similar aircraft throughout the world recalled - software tested, fixes developed, fully tested and then downloaded under controlled condirions.

If it's not the software at all but rather the hardware, downloading the SAME software aint gonna fix it.

Sounds like "crap" to me.

Recent posters have, quite rightly, informed us that Excel do get it right some of the time - perhaps even most of the time. The problem appears to me that when they do get it wrong they lie. Yes, LIE.

Why can't companies just admit the truth that sometimes things Do go pear-shaped. We'd think better of them in the long run.

This story reminds me of my time, 28 years back, whilst working with the team developing the flight scheduling computer system for Dan Air.

A couple of pilots were real jokers, one pulled the trick of tying a piece of string to the back of his seat in the cockpit, stretching it out throughthe door and giving it to a passenger in the front rows. The instructions, given with all seriousness being.... "Hold onto this, I'm just nipping to the loo, hold it tight as you have control of the aircraft".

Excel are nothing if not inventive in their excuses. they should beware however as the software developers at Boeing, BAe, etc could ask them to substantiate their software failure claims pending slander charges

On the other hand if you are flying a load of pax who know nothing about aircraft and many of whom may be nervous, its often better to make out its something like a simple software download rather than tell `em the central hydraulic system has gone for a ball of chalk!!!!

Result was pax got home late but reassured that the crew were on top of the job and enjoyed their flight home.Job done.....

Agree with your logic Paully, extend it further.....pilot would have been better simply saying there had been a small technical problem - now fully resolved.

Taxi-ing down a runway recently in Rarotonga (Cook Islands) and the plane turned back ... the excuse from the Captain was that someone had left their passport behind

True Mike but maybe thought that as it was a lengthy delay he should expand a bit. Was once on a BA 747 at Nairobi when we got the technical delay bit.looked out of the window to see boiler suited engineers sitting on the wing doing something to the number 3 engine which involved a fair bit of banging!!!

AAh the joys of flying eh

Paully,
standard software tool is a claw hammer - maybe another software glitch

I had disasterous results with xl last year.

And i needed to book 14 flights for next march. Well i did today and i again booked with xl.com as there fantastic £20 of vocher code did it for me.

I mamaged to get day flights for £154 each from manchester.

I just couldn't find anything near that price. Everying else was coming out over £175.

My reason for booking with them again. Is 1 the price, then the fact that 4 different couples of my friends have just come back from different places after me booking them with xl.com.
And they had nothing but praise for xl.

So i'm giving them 1 last chance.

XL are in the top 5 and regularly get into the top 3 for delays , cancellations , inflight problems and have been for quite a while and they are certainly nowhere near the top 10 for " cheapest flights " unless you concider crap cheap

Dave

Returned from Fuerteventura on Thursday (should have been Wednesday) after suffering at the hands of Excel. A 9 hour delay at Fuerteventura, got on the plane approaching midnight. Once the passengers were seated on the plane and the doors locked, we were then informed that we would be flying to Glasgow (should have been Newcastle) and then bussed down to Newcastle Airport.
Should have arrived back to Newcastle Airport at 19.30 on Wednesday 9th August, got back at 08.30 on Thursday 10th August, 13 hours late.
Just checking now to see if we are due any compensation, at the very least I need to recover the loss of a days earnings as I should have been back to work on Thursday.
Excel Airways, never again.

Are sure that the delay was not down to the recent security measures that went into place on Wednesday

Positive. The plane at Newcastle had a technical problem, so they flew in a repalcement from Glasgow. The Excel Gatwick flight was also suffering froma long delay. All the other flights from Fuerte were ok.