A passenger left stranded in New York during the Icelandic volcano eruption has finally received compensation.
Elizabeth Hume was forced to sleep at JFK Airport after flights across the world were disrupted by the volcanic eruption earlier this year. She missed her partner’s 21st birthday and only just made it home in time to sit an important university exam.
She has now received a cheque for £1,000. She said that she hadn’t expected to receive anything at all, so it was a nice surprise to get the phone call and then the cheque, and added that although it had been tough, when she looked back she realised that it could have been ‘a hell of a lot worse’.
She said that she planned to pay off some debts and buy her partner a present after missing her big day.
The news comes as East Midlands Airport revealed the cost of the eruption of Eyjafjallajoekull in May. It caused UK airspace to be shut down for six days, costing about £600,000.
Barry Thompson, the airport’s finance director, said the costs had been ‘substantial’, though much less than initial estimates of more than £1m.
About 63,000 East Midlands passengers were thought to have been hit by the resulting cancellations and delays. Mr Thompson said that East Midlands airport had lost an average of £100,000 every day of the six day period.
