A rugby supporter who thought he was flying directly to Cardiff for last year's Munster tie with Leicester was shocked to discover 10 minutes into the flight that the aircraft was instead bound for Birmingham, the Dublin Small Claims Court heard yesterday.
Mr Paul Ward, from Blackrock, Co Dublin, won his claim for the cost of the flight for himself, his son and a friend against travel agent, Dermot Ryan, trading as Stephen's Green Travel, Dublin.
The court heard he had paid €1,116 for the three of them for a day trip advertised as being direct to Cardiff on February 25th last.
When they got to the check-in at Dublin Airport, there was nothing on the monitors for a flight to Cardiff, but a handwritten sign was erected to cater for a large number of rugby supporters flying out that day.
Mr Ward's friend, Mr John Power, told the court that it was only 10 minutes into the flight that people were first informed that the aircraft was bound for Birmingham when the captain welcomed passengers.
"There was pandemonium on the plane," Mr Power said. People only calmed down when Mr Ryan, the tour operator who was aboard the flight, promised one man he would be compensated and after another travel rep said coaches had been organised to take people from Birmingham to Cardiff.
They were also told the trip would only take an hour and a half.
Traffic was so bad that day,however, that the trip took three hours, and Mr Ward and his companions reached Cardiff Arms Park only a few minutes after the start, having also missed lunch. There were also long delays on the return leg, which was also via Birmingham.
Counsel for Mr Ryan said the carrier arrangements had been organised through a third party, but on the day he was told that a different airline was taking people over and it was unable to go to Cardiff because of problems over landing rights.
Mr Ryan had sought to have the carrier named as a third party in the proceedings, but Judge Clare Leonard said it was up to Mr Ryan to take that issue up separately with the airline.