Does this guy look happy to you? Actually, does this guy even look alive to you? I’m guessing he’s just sleeping after the endless delays caused by the shutdown of Air Madrid over the weekend.(Photo credit: Bernat Armangue / AP)
Air Madrid is (was?) a low cost long haul airline flying primarily from major Spanish cities to South America, the Canary Islands, and Europe. They flew A330 and A340 aircraft until Friday when they were effectively shut down by the Spanish government.
The really sad part about this is that people like our friend in the above picture are now stuck with very few options for the holidays. That’s why a workers group for the airline is trying to at least temporarily resurrect the airline to get people where they need to be. See this article for more.
It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that these guys shut down, to be honest. They’ve really earned a reputation as one of the most unreliable airlines flying. Read some of these passenger opinions and you’ll understand why.
My personal favorite is the person who starts out asking if she was “the only person that has had a good experience with Air Madrid” only to let us know later that she was delayed by five hours. Apparently, the airline’s reputation caused her to anticipate “delays and allowed for this in [her] schedule.”
And that was a good review! In the long run, this shutdown is good, but for now there are a lot of unhappy stranded customers.