Keeping her feet on the ground

Date: 03/12/1998

Regional Affairs Commissioner Monika Wulf-Mathies was 'bounced' from her flight to Vienna last week on the grounds that Austrian Airlines had despatched a smaller-than-expected plane to Brussels without telling Sabena, which was managing things at this end.

The Commissioner pointed out that as she was flying to Vienna at the request of the Austrian government to deliver a speech, something had better be sorted out pretty quickly.

It wasn't. She was told that overbooking was not unusual and she would have to wait for three hours for another flight - half an hour before she was due to speak in Austria.

Unfortunately, many of the lucky passengers who did get on the overbooked flight were EU types Vienna-bound to hear the Commissioner's speech.

“They should have all stayed at the airport and had an impromptu seminar there,” said one.