Today Air Greenland passengers were treated to a very scenic journey around Greenland and Iceland. Unfortunately they ended up exactly where they started, which wasn’t the plan.
Continue reading: Air Greenland’s 10+ Hour Flight To Nowhere
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
What was the benefit of diverting back to CPH rather than spending the night in KEF and flying to Greenland the next day? Hotels in Iceland too expensive? 🙂
I could be wrong, but I'm guessing this has something to do with Copenhagen and Kangerlussuaq being in the same country?
I guess military bases wouldn't be a diversion point unless it's a real emergency, and KEF is probably closer too. At least in terms of accommodating passengers.
It's about time Nuuk really needs to expand. Tourism boom will come in the next 10 years.
Air Greenland has no loyalty program, so no miles earned.
At least Air Greenland is generous with onboard food and drinks.
If I had to take a guess they probably normally "tanker" max possible fuel, for cost savings reasons. This gives them a lot of options when it comes to diversions as well.
My name is Mogens Christian Jørgensen
And my family is Danish.
I have been twice to Søndtre Strømfjord
And my cousin Per in Denmark was
Married to a Beautiful Greenlander.
What a great treat to have experienced
Such a unique flight.
God bless to all!
Weather diversions are very common in Greenland but no so common at Kangerlussuaq, which enjoys clear weather most of the year. That's one reason why this is the main hub for the A330 flights from Copenhagen (that and the long runway, which was built there in the first place because of the generally clear weather).
Interesting, we flew from Kangerlussuaq yesterday and the Air Greenland representatives said about 50% of domestic flights get rerouted or cancelled due to bad weather. We made it to Ilulissat in the second attempt and most of the other flights in and out got cancelled or heavily delayed. Air travel here seems to be a bit of a gamble but this CPH bounce back is rather unique
No EU261 compensation is due at all. When the issue is outside the airline's control, and the weather certainly is, there is no liability to pay compensation, just to take care of the passengers, which in this case probably meant paying for hotel accommodation in Copenhagen if that was not their home address
If it’s beyond the airlines control (weather-related), there won’t be a cash compensation. Airlines will just have the duty to care about passengers. This means giving them hotel rooms, food, access to a telephone.
EU261/2004 does not use "within the airlines control" as a test for eligibility for compensation. Rather, it uses the "extraordinary circumstances" and "reasonable measures" tests.
One could easily make the argument that bad weather in Greenland is not an extraordinary circumstance and therefore the airline could have taken reasonable measures to mitigate the impact on the passengers (such as rescheduling the flight to a time of day with better weather forecasts).
My first thought was Thule as well but Thule is 756 miles away and the opposite direction of Copenhagen. Where Iceland is 830 miles away so pretty much the same as Thule but much closer to Copenhagen in case they needed to return to Denmark.
The fourth season of Borgen is out on Netflix and centers on a discovery of oil in Greenland. Many flights back and forth by the characters... surprised there was no Air Greenland product placement.
You say the original A330 was a single aisle, I thought the A330 was twin isle and wide body? Am I wrong?