Passengers scrum at Corfu airport where a melting runway led to chaos. Photograph: Jason West
I've been delayed for some bizarre reasons in my time but this week an airport delay was nothing short of surreal, writes Jason West. Returning home from Corfu airport on Monday, my girlfriend and I figured that the hundreds of people sitting on the grass outside departures were just keen to catch a few last rays. Not so. On a beautiful (but not sweltering) day the place was packed solid and all 14 flights had either been delayed or diverted. It was obvious no one was going anywhere fast.
A jovial gent informed us that they'd relaid the runway overnight and "not anticipated such a nice day today". (Sunshine, in Greece? Never!) The new tarmac had actually melted and a plane had taken a bit of it home on its undercarriage, leaving a big hole in the runway.
Announcements were terse and sparse. The reps knew very little. Then at 6.30pm, after a two-and-a-half hour wait for us - others had been due to leave at 1pm - our rep told us breathlessly that our plane would land at 7pm and that we should go to passport control immediately.
However, every other rep appeared to have been told to say the same thing. Cue 14 planeloads of passengers trying to get through one immigration door attended by one hard-pressed immigration official, all at the same time.
Then, when boarding calls actually began, those who needed to get to their gates were more often than not at the back of the bottleneck. Chaos reigned and old ladies, the infirm and toddlers all had to take their chances in the throng to get to their gate in time. Some reps came over all vigilante and led their groups from the front, clipboards raised on high, to storm the small opening while at the same time spreading misinformation about which flight was due to leave first. Things were not made easier by those people who had made it to the departure lounge cafe bringing hot coffee and sandwiches back through the same congested aperture.
All this time the "fat controller" of Corfu airport was nowhere to be seen. One rather posh, and still flustered, grand dame finally took her seat on the shuttle bus to the plane while stating loudly to anyone who cared to listen that, "If that had been a load of Greeks at a UK airport there'd have been a riot".
