No compensation for Stansted travellers

Weary passengers found the wait for transport too much

Hundreds of passengers left stranded at Stansted Airport are unlikely to be compensated for their six-hour ordeal.

Up to 500 people arrived on eight flights on Tuesday evening to find train services were operating on a Boxing Day service that ended at 1900GMT.

The airport says disgruntled travellers will have to take up their complaints with the rail companies.

But the train operators say they had advertised the reduced service well in advance.

As a general rule we will not be paying compensation

WAGN spokeswoman

Buses running from the Essex airport were overwhelmed by demand on Tuesday night.

Embarrassed airport officials hurriedly arranged for eight extra coaches to be laid on but hundreds were forced to queue for several hours.

The last of the passengers, who had arrived on flights from cities such as Rome, Edinburgh and Stockholm, were on their way home by 0200GMT on Wednesday.

'No warning'

Most said they had not been told of the delays until they landed and described initial events at the airport as "chaotic".

But West Anglia Great Northern said it would not pay compensation because it had advertised the early termination of Boxing Day services well in advance.

A WAGN spokeswoman said the airport was aware of Boxing Day timetable and that services had been arranged to coincide with the busiest period of the day.

"Services have stopped at the same time for the past two years and there has never been a problem," she said.

"Obviously this year there was a problem and we will be looking into that. But as a general rule we will not be paying compensation."

'Astonishing'

Stansted staff said complaints would be assessed individually if the matter was about the airport.

"But if someone had pre-booked a ticket on the Stansted Express and were unhappy about that then that is a matter between them and the operators of the Stansted Express," said an airport spokesman.

Labour MP Gwyneth Dunwoody, chairwoman of the Commons select committee on transport, told BBC News 24 that the delays showed "an astonishing lack of any kind of integration".

"At one of the busiest times of the Christmas holidays, to do something like this to the passengers seems extraordinary," she said.