It’s back to school this week for a lot of students after spring break.
But for some families who traveled and flew home to New Haven this weekend, they have some stories to share with their classmates and colleagues Monday.
So far, from Saturday through Monday, 10 Avelo flights heading into New Haven from either Florida or North Carolina had to divert because of low visibility at Tweed New Haven Airport.
Two diverted flights went to Bradley International Airport.
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The rest flew to Wilmington, Delaware, where Avelo has a crew based there.
That airport is where Jennifer Brown, of Clinton, and her daughter spent the night.
She described her experience as a nightmare.
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When they arrived in Delaware late Saturday evening, she says she learned her flight wouldn’t take off until Sunday afternoon.
And because of their late arrival in Delaware, she says local hotels and rental cars were booked because of other Avelo planes that had already been diverted there.
“Listen, I get weather. I get it. I would rather be safe than sorry. But you have to come up with a better plan. You cannot dump four full planes in an airport that has no food that has like that," Brown said. "There were no resources," Brown said in a conversation with a customer service representative she reached out to on the phone. "And then to not have anybody from Avelo there. They just they literally disappeared. It was crazy.”
Brown said the airline’s communication with passengers was non-existent.
She says she never received any emails or texts with trip updates either.
An Avelo spokesperson looked into Brown’s complaints and said the operations team reassured him that detailed announcements were made, and crews were on hand to help customers.
The airline has promised NBC CT Responds that it would be improving its communications with travelers after we’ve received many consumer complaints this year.
“Well below 1% of our flights have diverted since we took flight at Tweed in 2021. This is a very rare occurrence, but we’re always going to put safety ahead of convenience or our industry-leading reliability,” Avelo spokesperson Jim Olson said.
He says they don’t have a lot of choices when they have to divert because of weather, “so we do our best with the option(s) we have at the time.”
And while the airline is not required to provide compensation for bad weather, Olson says as a gesture of good will, all customers on diverted flights received a $100 travel credit to use on future trips and the airline will cover reasonable expenses associated with the delay.
NBC CT Responds also heard from Bryan MacDonald of Plainville.
His flight to Tweed was diverted Sunday night to Delaware.
MacDonald was able to get a hotel.
His flight was supposed to take off Monday afternoon, but when we last spoke with him, he’d been on the plane waiting for hours as weather at Tweed still hadn't improved by Monday evening.
