Explore Passengers: Grit in the face of Ash

• 900 Passengers
• 120 groups
• 46 countries

Those are the bare facts facing the crisis team at Explore when the UK’s airspace was closed down a week or so ago.

But as always, the statistics mask a myriad personal stories. Tales of Esprit de Corps in destinations as diverse as Belize and Borneo, Costa Rica and Cyprus, Ghana and Guatemala, Namibia and Nepal. Explore customers were always a resourceful lot, but when the chips were down, did they panic, fluster or fumble? Did they hell. No, they bonded together, selected spokespeople to work closely with Explore’s local agents and tour leaders as well as the twenty-strong team at Explore HQ to find accommodation, meals, diversions and eventually tickets home, whether by air, road, rail or sea – or sometimes all of those.

More adventure than they bargained for...

• A group in Iran found themselves invited to a soiree at the British Embassy, courtesy of some communication between Ali in our Operations dept and the Ambassador himself. They all had a lovely evening by all reports, in “an oasis of a garden”.
• A family, who had, by coincidence, been on the same tour as our Sales Director’s tribe in Costa Rica, went and stayed with him at his holiday home in Orlando after getting to the USA but not being able to get any further.
• For many passengers, Madrid was as far as they could get on their long routes home. So, not to be outdone by Gordon Brown, we sent out coaches from the UK to pick them up and transport them all the way back to the airport they started out from in the UK.
• Others, who got waylaid in Paris were accommodated in a chateau just outside the city, courtesy of a sister company and some quick thinking by the Explore Crisis team.
• Two people, for whom a solo’s holiday turned into a couple’s adventure part way through, were worried their new found love was to be torn asunder by disparate transport arrangements. As soon as the Explore team was alerted, they swung into action and the fledgling flame of romance was kept flickering all the way back to the UK.
• Another customer stuck in South Africa, a particular sticking point for flights home, was worried that he was going to lose the new house he had put a substantial deposit on, if he missed the settlement date. Once again, the team managed to pull some strings and he made it home with days to spare.

Passenger feedback

It was a trying time for everyone concerned. Certainly for passengers whose lives were temporarily put on hold around the world. But for us at Explore, the natural response was, and always will be to dive in and do all in our power to help those hundreds of customers.

Working 24 hours a day for days on end, we got everyone home as promised and the letters, Tweets and Facebook messages of thanks are testament to the way the situation was handled and were all gratefully received by the weary but contented Explore crisis team.

Thank you

Even though we are not yet out of the woods with regards future ash disruptions, we would like to take this opportunity to thank our customers for their patience, understanding and feedback, and our many local agents and tour leaders for their help throughout this crisis.

All our passengers can be assured that in the event of future disruption from ash clouds or anything else the team at Explore is there to look after them all the way back home.

Airspace re-booting

View an amazing video of European airspace during the ash cloud crisis and its subsequent 're-booting'. http://vimeo.com/11205494