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Winnie reaches her 100th birthday
Budget airline plagued with stranded travellers
Ryanair’s Pisa
flights fiasco
AN EDINBURGH woman
has celebrated her 100th
birthday and revealed
her secret to living a long
and joyful life is simply
“good genes”.
Winifred (Winnie) Aitken,
who lives at Care UK’s
Lauder Lodge, on Wakefield
Avenue, enjoyed the
birthday with family, team
members and residents.
Revealing her secret to a
long and happy life, Winnie,
who is well known for her
love of reading, travelling
and her wonderful sense of
humour, said: “It may be that
it was passed down – good
genes have seen my mother
and grandmother live until
their 90s”.Anees Riaz, Home
Manager at Lauder Lodge,
said: “Everyone had a
wonderful time celebrating
Winnie’s birthday, and she
was particularly pleased to
see her surprise birthday
cake.
“Winnie has been living at
Lauder Lodge for over three
years now, and it’s fair to say
the home wouldn’t be the
same without her.
Winnie was born inGreenock, in Scotland, in
1921 to Barr and Mildred
Turner who were both
teachers. After Greenock
Academy, Winnie went to
West of Scotland
Agricultural College, in
Auchincruive. During
WWII Winnie worked as a
Poultry Officer and Milk
Officer, where she met
husband Andrew.
Winnie and Andrew
shared a lifetime of happy
memories and had two sons
together, Alastair and
Murray. She returned from
the war to work as a Lab
Technician at Firhill School,
before working at Napier
University and missed it
greatly when she retired.By STEPHEN RAFFERTYRYANAIR’S POPULAR route between
Edinburgh and Tuscan hotspot Pisa has been
blighted with delays and cancellations which
have left hundreds of passengers stranded.
Regular delays on the Monday evening
flights have been capped with cancelled flights
which left more than 400 passengers high and
dry and scrambling to find late night
accommodation.
On 12 June Scots and Italian fliers were
boarded late on the outgoing 6.15pm flight
from Edinburgh but after sitting on the runway
for about 40 minutes they were told the flight
had been cancelled and had to return to the
terminal building.
The incoming flight from Pisa, due to depart
at 10.25pm, was also cancelled with hundreds
of unhappy fliers left to sort out
accommodation as it approached midnight,
and many having to wait a further three days
for the next direct flight to Edinburgh.
Ryanair blamed the cancellation of both
flights on “thunderstorms at Edinburgh
Airport” but eyewitness passengers on the
ground confirmed there was no weather issues
on the evening of Monday 12 June.WHY BOTHER
One furious flyer heading to Pisa, Ruth
McGivern of Cumbernauld, said: “When we
were queuing in the priority line of one of the
Ryanair staff said, “I don’t know why you are
bothering to stand here because the plane has
not even left Bournemouth yet’.”
As the 6.15pm departure time approached,
passengers were informed the flight was delayed
until 7.25pm, eventually boarding at 8.35pm,
but after a 30-40 minute wait on the tarmac they
were informed the flight had been cancelled
because Pisa Airport was “closed”.
The previous Monday - 5 June - the same10.20pm flight from Pisa to Edinburgh was
approximately three hours late arriving in the
Scottish capital, with passengers given no
explanation for the delay.
Ruth McGivern added: “Customer service
was non-existent, they pretty much didn’t give a
damn and there was no hint of an apology from
anyone about the cancellation. I know storms
were forecast down south but there was certainly
no heavy rain or thunder in Edinburgh.”
At Pisa, passengers were left in the lurch and
had to find hotel accommodation, including one
women and her exhausted 60-year-old mother
who had recently finished treatment for cancer.RUINED BREAK
The 33-year-old executive, who asked not to be
named, said: “It was very stressful and Ryanair
ruined a short break which was to celebrate my
mother completing a bruising round of chemo
and radiotherapy.
“We managed to find a hotel near the airport
and then returned to Lucca for two days where
we could get the support of family who are
there, but there were a number of elderly people
at Pisa Airport who were clearly distressed on
learning of the cancelled flight and I have no
idea how they coped with making alternative
arrangements at such a late hour.”
Delayed departures have continued to plague
the service. On Monday 19 June the outgoing
flight from Edinburgh to Pisa arrived 1 hour 19
minutes late, while the return flight to Scotland
was more than one hour late touching down.
A spokeswoman for Ryanair said: “This flight
from Pisa to Edinburgh (12 Jun) was regrettably
cancelled due to thunderstorms at Edinburgh
Airport. Ryanair apologises for any
inconvenience caused as a result of this
weather-related cancellation which was entirely
beyond our control.”
Ryanair failed to explain the three hour delay
on the Pisa to Edinburgh flight on 5 June.Scott Douglas