32-hour U.S. delay for Scots

HUNDREDS of holidaymakers were stranded for two nights in Las Vegas after their flight back to Glasgow was delayed for 32 hours.

Holiday giant Thomas Cook faced extra bills of thousands of pounds after officials were forced to put 340 passengers up in hotels and issue them with food vouchers when an Airbus 330 developed engine trouble.

The marathon ordeal began on Saturday when a plane due to leave Manchester Airport at 7.15am with 300 other passengers failed to take off after developing a technical fault.

The same A330 was due to fly the Glasgow party home shortly after touching down in Las Vegas.

Instead Thomas Cook had to scramble a second plane – only it also faced a delay in leaving Manchester because airport chiefs in America had to re-issue the holiday company with new landing times.

The engine fault and new time slots meant the Glasgow holidaymakers were stranded in the desert resort for more than 30 hours.

Instead of arriving home at 5.30am yesterday they were due to touch down in Glasgow at 1.05pm today after spending two extra nights in Las Vegas.

A Thomas Cook spokesman today said: "The delay was due to unavoidable operational circumstances with the aircraft prior to its outbound flight from Manchester."

gordon.thomson@ eveningtimes.co.uk

Commenting & Moderation

We moderate all comments on Evening Times on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules, which are available here.

Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.