News Letter journalist caught up in Moroccan flights chaos

One of Morocco’s most iconic cities, Marrakech is a popular destination for Northern Irish travellers, but for many visitors, this beguiling city, famed for its ancient medina, riads and colourful souks, literally became a tourist trap as many found themselves unable to get flights out of the country.

As the north African kingdom announced drastic measures to battle the spread of coronavirus, international flights were suspended until further notice, but special so-called rescue flights were allowed to repatriate European tourists stranded in the kingdom.

On Tuesday the impact of the measures could be felt on the ground as cafes, restaurants, cinemas and places of worship were closed. The main square, which when we arrived had been a sensory spectacle of snake charmers, henna artists, monkey handlers and hawkers, suddenly became eerily empty.

Our group faced massive uncertainty. Whilst easyJet email updates told us our flights were scheduled to go ahead as normal, the messages from home were that flights were stopping and we needed to get out as soon as possible.

Luckily, our easyJet flight had not been cancelled, but others were not so fortune. When we arrived at the airport for our departure, there was a palpable sense of panic and frustration.

Long queues formed at enquiry desks as travellers from all over the world, whose flights had been cancelled, scrambled to get flights home, or to anywhere close to home.

One Northern Irish man due to fly out of Marrakech tomorrow, couldn’t reschedule his easyJet flight to Belfast. After hours spent queueing, he finally secured a flight to Pari, only to be then told it too was cancelled. I’m unsure if he made it home.

I heard other travellers recount tales of having spent thousands of pounds to get different flights after theirs had been cancelled.

And many lashed out at the airlines for lack of information and the impossible task of getting through to them by telephone.

Our flight was delayed by four hours, due to clearance issues with the Moroccan authorities. Ironically when we boarded there were at least 20 free seats on the plane.

An air steward explained some people had obviously decided not to go ahead with their planned trip to Morocco, but hadn’t cancelled their flight. Since the airline hadn’t been informed of the cancellations, they were unable to offer seats to stranded passengers.