One of four flights chartered by Liverpool travel agency Myriad Travel to take more than 100 football fans to this weekend’s Champions League final has been cancelled by JTA Travel Group.
It follows news this morning that more than 1,000 fans were stranded in Liverpool because of problems with landing slots at Kiev, where Liverpool FC is due to play Real Madrid in Saturday’s final.
Myriad Travel apologised to customers after being told flight SVB116, due to fly to Kiev tomorrow (Saturday), was no longer available and said it would be issuing all passengers with a refund.
It chartered the flight from JTA Travel Group which in turn had a contract with Air Partner to provide Saturday’s flight.
The other three flights chartered by Myriad are unaffected and still due to go ahead. Sales of the seats have been split with another Liverpool agency, Crown Travel.
In a tweet, Myriad Travel owner Tiffany Woodley said: “We are sorry to advise that flight No 1 (SVB116) to Kiev has been cancelled by our supplier JTA in the last few hours. We have been desperately trying to source an alternative but none are available. Flight refunds will be issued as soon as possible.”
JTA said it had received 48 hours notice from Air Partner that the aircraft was no longer available to fly.
Managing director Wayne Darrock said he had been “astounded” to receive such short notice of the flight cancellation.
He added: “We were told by Air Partner that it did not have a licence to fly across Europe. We are still investigating this and seeking legal advice.
“We have done everything possible to help the travel agents. We didn’t want to let them down.
“From our point of view we are frustrated with Air Partner.”
Despite being able to charter a replacement aircraft – after losing out on another alternative aircraft earlier today – JTA could not secure landing slots for the flight to land at Kiev.
Air Partner said it flagged up the problem as early as Wednesday evening and had offered alternative solutions, but that they had been turned down.
A spokesman said: “We deeply regret that the original aircraft was not able to fly. On Thursday morning, we offered a number of alternative aircraft solutions to the travel agent [JTA] that contracted us but they declined them and we fully refunded the agent.”
It is the first time in 11 years that Liverpool has reached the final of the Champions League.