Hovertravel will run a 1-craft only service throughout the Isle of Wight Festival and for the next 2 weeks, it has been announced.
It comes following a crash on the pad at Southsea on Friday, which saw Island Flyer sustain front-end damage when it went nose-first into bollards. This has led to the cross-Solent operator making immediate changes to their timetable, for what they say is ‘unforeseen circumstances’.
Repair work to Island Flyer – which is now back at Ryde – is expected to take 2 weeks which means just 1 craft will be operating between Ryde and Southsea until the end of the month.
During peak times a half-hourly service will be in operation, reducing to hourly during off-peak times. However, this is subject to Solent Flyer being able to maintain operations on its own with no redundancy should it fail.
A spokesperson has said:
“We appreciate that these changes will be disruptive for a small number of customers and we have attempted to keep the adjustments to the minimum possible.
“Our staff in the call centre and in both terminals are available to help customers who need extra assistance in changing their flight times”.
Oh bollocks, where’s the brakes.
Oh goody. Hovercrafts filled to the gunnels with the great unwashed after the Festival.
With any luck some may not even get here.