For Aer Lingus, the jewel in the crown is its transatlantic business. And with Irish tourism relying increasingly on high-spending North American visitors that’s not likely to change.
While the airline’s routes to New York, Boston and Chicago are its most high profile, it flies to a wide number of US cities, and continues to expand its North American network.
And in the land where the customer is king (or queen), the last thing “Ireland’s favourite airline” will want is bad press.
Unfortunately, it has recently found its way on to the pages of the New York Times for all the wrong reasons.
As the paper reports, a Ugandan citizen travelled without incident from Amsterdam to Newark, via Dublin only to be refused boarding at Newark on their return journey. Agents acting for Aer Lingus told the passenger that she needed a transit visa for the Irish stopover, which she did not.
The passenger said she even showed the agent the Irish Government web page listing those countries whose citizens require a transit visa, a list that does not include Uganda.
Worse still, the New York Times recounts that when the passenger complained after having to fork out $964 (€821) to fly one-way direct to Amsterdam with KLM, the airline failed to respond to written complaints or phone calls for almost three months.
It only reacted when the paper got it touch, at which point the New York Times reports, it quickly – if very belatedly – accepted its original mistake, immediately offering to reimburse not only the $964 but also the €600 the passenger was entitled to for having been denied boarding and some additional costs related to the disruption.
Aer Lingus has form here, dating back to Covid when international travel was grounded. Once again, the big issue was the inability of disrupted passengers to get a reply from the airline in any reasonable time frame, never mind organising refunds or rebooking.
There have been other customer issues since then, including one reported on by Cantillon’s colleague Conor Pope which a reader described as the “worst customer service experience of my life”.
The latest mea culpa shows the airline still has much to learn about customer service. If it’s serious about growing its American business, it can’t afford to ignore customer complaints.
