source: BBC News
A Greater Manchester taxi firm is to take a group of business people on a 1,200-mile journey to Madrid to help them beat the airline chaos.
The 21 US citizens have booked the trip with Stockport-based Lynx Taxis after negotiating a £3,600 fare.
A coach will take them to Portsmouth for a ferry across the Channel before they are driven to Madrid airport.
Boss Craig Ingham said he had already taken calls from Britons who want a place on the coach when it returns.
Planes at Manchester Airport, like all of the UK’s main airports, remain grounded because of the volcanic ash cloud.
Mr Ingham’s firm was contacted by pharmaceutical company Astrazeneca to arrange the trip for the business people, who need to be back in the US on Friday.
| “It might go up a little bit because the ferry ports are charging a little bit extra – obviously they are taking advantage of the situation”
Craig Ingham, Lynx Taxis owner |
“That’s what they want – that’s what I’ve organised,” Mr Ingham told the BBC.
The group are being picked up from their hotel at 1000 BST on Tuesday.
“There’s a coach which is travelling down to Portsmouth, then it’s going over to France and it’s a 750-mile trip into Madrid.
“It’s about £3,600. It might go up a little bit because the ferry ports are charging a little bit extra – obviously they are taking advantage of the situation.”
The taxi company has already taken a group of eight holidaymakers from a hotel in Wilmslow to Calais – for £450.
Record fare
And after returning to Dover, the same driver picked up a group of eight skiers from Stockport and took them home.
But despite the bumper fare for his firm, the taxi boss said the knock-on affect of Manchester Airport’s closure was having a big impact on taxi businesses.
“It’s affected our business because obviously taxi drivers take people to the airport and we’ve got drivers sat not doing very much at the moment.”
On Friday, a taxi firm in Northamptonshire picked up its record fare from a group of business people desperate to travel.
Amber Cars said seven men paid £1,200 to be driven 700 miles (1,126km) from Northampton to Geneva after their flight was grounded.
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