Viking Airline

by **exrlref** on Thu Mar 05, 2009 10:36 am

What is known about this airline that is due to start operating big time this summer from gatwick and Manchester? It seems that some of the directors are from XL. They left XL just before it went bust and joined Viking. I hope that this doesn't mean more problems for the travelling public. It seems a very busy timetable and with limited aircraft I hope they can meet the timetable. I believe they are flying to 15 locations over the week.

by **HW John** on Thu Mar 05, 2009 13:01 pm

Personally, avoid like the plague if you can. Viking has been going a while using old leased aircaft with some fairly bad reviews.

XL used to charter them to help out during the summer with tech aircraft and even they couldnt keep up.

If they take off as much as stated (forgive the pun) and dont suffer this summer, i will come on here and eat the proverbial hat. :mrgreen:

by **exrlref** on Thu Mar 05, 2009 17:51 pm

Thanks Hw John for that. It does back up what I was told. I was booked on them for June but was able to change airline for an additional £6.00 return, under the circumstances I think I have done well. For other people I hope we're proved wrong. I may add that a friend who has a travel agents will not book anyone on Viking. Nough said!!

by **manc_steve** on Thu Mar 05, 2009 18:23 pm

I personally think Viking should be given a chance. They have no connection to XL they are a scandanavian airline that have been operating for years, and have been chartered out by many of the large tour operators like thomas cook for years. The only connection to XL is that some of the directors from XL started their own company called kiss flights which is now the main selling arm of viking flights. They are adding a number of 737's to their fleet, yes they may be leased from the same company that leased to XL but never the less they are adding aircrafts to cope with the extra routes they are doing.

I would personally have no trouble with useing them and encourage people to do the same, we have lost to many airlines and I welcome new ones that will bring more competition to the industry which is what is needed as the larger secure airlines have took advantage of the situation. The aviation inudstry went though a tough time with fuel prices but as they are comeing down I feel the future is looking more secure.

Steve

by **spiralbeast** on Fri Mar 06, 2009 12:05 pm

The aircraft I have seen at Gatwick is a Boeing 737-800, which is more modern than a lot of the aircraft that other charter airlines use.
I personally have faith in them.

by **manc_steve** on Fri Mar 06, 2009 18:38 pm

If I found the right priced flights from manchester I would book with them.

Steve

by **holidayfreak** on Thu Mar 19, 2009 22:34 pm

They're using ex XL aircraft and have the same management team that brought down XL. I'd only book by credit card and make sure you have adequate insurance cover, if I were you. Personally, I wouldn't risk it.

by **New Yorker** on Fri Mar 20, 2009 02:01 am

Haven't experienced the airline yet. After reading the remarks here, I think my team will be having a great adventure!

by **Flappit Witch** on Sun Jun 14, 2009 19:50 pm

We had booked with Onur air, Manchester to Bodrum last month (May). With just a week to go we were told that our flight time had changed - considerably And that our carrier was Saga. Not only did we fly several hours later, but also landed and picked up at Gatwick! It was actually an 'Amsterdam Airlines' plane and we had a reasonably OK flight.

Return was not so good. The day previously we rang and confirmed our flight from Bodrum, which was at 5am. When we arrived at the airport just before 2am we found that the flight wasn't going until 7.30. This meant that most of the passengers were up ALL night. Sleep deprivation was the first problem.

It was a VIKING flight. There was to be NO refreshments provided. I bought a cup of coffee for £3 which was served in a plastic cup and was what I can only describe as disgusting. The cabin staff were useless. The stewardess in our section inattentive and brusque when I did finally get her attention. She completely ignored the row we were sitting in so I pressed the call button to order my coffee. She gave me black coffe and nothing else. I had to ask for milk and a stirrer. We were in row 8. It took her a full hour to get that far. But her nails and hair were immaculate as she frequently checked them.

As before, we landed at Gatwick. After sitting on the tarmac for 45 minutes, we were asked to get off the plane and identify our bags as there'd been a mix up. So we trailed off the back of the plane, into the terminal building and back down the air corridor. My bag wasn't on the tarmac, but I spotted it on a trolley. I told the 'man' this and he said it's OK it'd already been identified. By who?? Seemed this was acceptable. Huh!

We finally arrived at Manchester six hours later than scheduled. The only apology came from a very embarrassed stewardess who had joined the flight at Gatwick. The majority of people on this flight had long onward journeys, many by car. Not a very safe state to be in for driving.

This is our first experience of Viking. The only good thing we can say is that they got us to Manchester - eventually.

I will not be using this cheap and cheerful mickey mouse outfit again. Sooner fly with Turkish Airlines. At least they're efficient, polite and reliable even if they are a few florins dearer.

by **extremewhiteshark** on Wed Jun 24, 2009 13:32 pm

Avoid Viking Airlines. Our 9hr delay to Gambia was caused by a technical fault on the aircraft which had according to people we spoke with in Gambia been causing problems on flights the previous week. I am very unhappy about the time it took to source a part and to fix a fairly routine piece of equipment and can not understand why a replacement aircraft could not have been sourced. My feeling is that Viking airlines is a very small operation and does not have the ability to source replacement aircraft. We found the offer of a £6 meal voucher and one free “soft” drink on board the aircraft quite insulting and wholly inadequate given the extreme delay to our service.

The flight itself was very poor. I was amazed that a 737 would be used for a 6.5 hour flight, with just 3 toilets between 190 passengers. The fuel margin must be very tight. Initially the forward toilet was full of hand luggage! All of the trolleys had Excel airways marked on them and the whole aircraft appeared old, tired, tatty and unprofessional. My partner placed her coat under the seat in front on the floor and the coat is now covered in dirt, grease and oil. The plane was very dirty with dirt and splash marks on the seat backs and obviously is very dirty underneath the seats. We didn’t even receive a tea or coffee with our in-flight meal on the outbound flight. The leg room was probably the tightest I have experienced in any airline.

If you have a trawl of the internet you will find huge numbers of references to Viking Airlines and complaints for example:

http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/viking.htm

The delay meant we missed the first afternoon, evening and half board meal at our hotel and caused myself and my partner much frustration and disappointment on what was only a 7 night holiday.

From my window seat you could see missing rivets on some of the cowlings !