ABTA takes a journey to hell and back

The Diary predicts that next year you may witness a fall in the number of bookings made on Iberia, Spain’s national airline, as travel agents take their revenge for a journey from hell.

The Association of British Travel Agents held its annual conference in Marbella last week, where tour operators gathered to discuss the hot topics facing the tourism industry.

Unfortunately, the plane back to London was short by 80 seats, and after a lot of queueing and waiting the unfortunate 80 were flown to Madrid to catch a connecting flight.

More queueing and waiting ensued, but having settled on the Madrid to London flight, delegates were informed that one passenger was missing, and that his or her baggage was on board posing a potential bomb threat. After an hour’s wait the plane was finally cleared for take-off.

The journey took one delegate 12 hours, when it should have taken closer to four.

Iberia’s advertising strapline claims it is “leading the way to Spain and Latin America” – well it’s certainly not leading the way to Heathrow.