A Volotea flight from Nice to Luxembourg turns into a 24-hour nightmare

The trip was supposed to take 1 hour 30 minutes. The passengers of flight V7 2578 ended up arriving in Luxembourg nearly 24 hours late. The plane was to leave Friday from Nice Côte d’Azur airport at 19:35 but nothing went as planned.

Passengers were initially informed that the flight would be 1 hour and 15 minutes late. This information would have been sent to them around 19:00, explains a female student who was on board with her parents to France 3 television channel.

Shortly before 21:00, the boarding began onto Airbus A319 registered EC-NDG. It was interrupted “because another plane was using the same boarding gate,” she explains.

Those already on board the aircraft then received an explanation from the flight attendants who said that the incoming flight had been delayed at Luxembourg Findel airport because of misplaced luggage.

Around 21:30, the plane finally took off two hours late.

“After an hour of flight, the plane turned around and we were told that it could not land in Luxembourg,” said the student interviewed by journalists from France 3.

Luxembourg airport had closed for its night curfew, forcing the plane to land in Lyon and therefore more than 500 km from its intended destination.

Arrived in Lyon, the passengers have no choice but to wait for the instructions of the company which ends up accommodating them in a hotel near the airport. It is 01:30 when travellers can finally rest in their respective rooms.

At this stage, no one knows how or when they will finally reach Findel airport. A bus is due to arrive at 10:00 to pick up the passengers from the flight, but they don’t know more.

On this Easter Sunday, the Spanish airline ensures that it has paid for the hotel night, breakfast and lunch for its travellers. It also claims to have made buses available to bring them to Luxembourg.

The passengers ended up arriving in Luxembourg on Saturday evening at 18:45, almost 24 hours after the scheduled departure time of their flight the day before.

Source: RTL, France 3, Flightradar24