Manchester United have won one of their last 10 games in European competition and none of their last five away matches. Yet every away game continues to sell out, with Porto for Thursday’s Europa League group game the latest to be oversubscribed.
There were, however, some empty seats in the 2,500-capacity away section because fans who had tickets could not get to the stadium. Instead of spending a day on the banks of the Douro River, 180 fans on the official club trip spent the day inside Manchester Airport before their trip was cancelled.
We spoke to several of those left behind. “We got up at 4.30am and were at Manchester Airport for check in at 6am,” explains Jon Neild, who travels with his son Alex, 17, who is well known among United’s fan base. Casemiro had seen Alex at pre-season training in Los Angeles in July and pushed the teenager’s wheelchair over to the rest of the players so that Alex could meet them.
United’s official trips — run by a partner called Sportsbreaks — tend to be more expensive than travelling independently, but they offer the convenience of a day trip only needing a day off work. They also include security and transfers. Charter aircraft can also be difficult to source at this time of year, when people are still enjoying the Mediterranean sun.
Though United do not run a trip for every game, there are fans who travel on those they put on who have not missed a game for years.
“Everything looked ok, though we noticed there was a 15-minute delay on the flight,” says Neild Snr. “We tend to book through Sportsbreaks because they cover everything. And, especially travelling with Alex and his additional needs, they sort everything. That’s why we use the official club travel. There’s security on there, everyone knows Alex and it’s usually brilliant.
“It can be difficult when you travel independently on the day of the game so we appreciate it when the club sorts a trip out. We booked our own trip to Bayern Munich last year but flights were late and we missed the youth-team game.
“Spirits were high before the flight to Porto. We were camped in an Italian restaurant. We called ourselves the ‘Terminal 2 airport Reds’. Then we were told there was an issue with the incoming flight from Rome, a technical difficulty. Nobody had heard of the airline were supposed to use — AlbaStar.”
Alex and Jon Neild (from left) and friends at Manchester airport (Jon Neild)
AlbaStar are a Spanish charter company with five aircraft in their fleet. Online reviews of the company are poor — they are rated just 1.8 out of five on Trustpilot — but those are similar to the ratings of many budget airlines.
At 7.06am, fans who had gone through security an hour before received a message from Sportsbreaks which read: “We’re sorry to advise that your outbound flight to Porto is significantly delayed due to a technical issue. We’ve been reassured that the aircraft will shortly depart its current destination of Rome. However, this will cause a delay in our departure time. Please continue to check the departure boards.”
Two hours later, fans received another message.
“We’re working hard with the airline to obtain a definitive departure time from Manchester. However, at this time 09:00am we have no update on an expected departure time.”
At 09.43am, fans received another message.
“Confirmed Departure Time: 14:30. Confirmed Arrival Time: 16:50. We are aware this is a significant delay to your travel plans, and most of your time today has been spent in Manchester Airport. As soon as you arrive into Porto, a bus transfer will drop you at the stadium.”
A voucher for food and drink (no alcohol) was given to those affected.
An email was also sent from Sportsbreaks apologising and saying that fans could, under EU law, make a claim with the airline for flight-delay compensation. Sportsbreaks also said they would process a “50 per cent refund of your booking value. This will be 50 per cent of the £489 cost of the official day trip, totalling a refund value of £244.50.”
At 1:49pm, fans received a message saying: “*Important Update*. Flight AP1641 MAN — OPO. Please go to boarding gate B5. Many thanks. Sportsbreaks.”
Fans were then taken by bus to an AlbaStar 737 aircraft in a distant part of the airport. “We worked it out that 3pm was the final cut-off point to make kick-off,” says Neild. “We sat on the plane with an expected departure of 2.45pm and thought it was on. After 3pm, we were told that they were struggling to get a slot to depart Manchester from air traffic control.”
“They sourced a plane which flew in from Italy,” explains Mathew Ratcliffe, who was taking his 12-year-old son, Eric (named after Cantona), on his first European away trip. “This was due to land at 1.45pm and leave with us at 2.30pm. They’d told us in the airport that 3.30pm departure was cut off to get us to Porto, through customs and into coaches to ground.
“We boarded the plane at 2.55pm and went through all the usual safety checks. At 3.20pm, the pilot made announcement that we couldn’t get a slot for 30 mins until 3.45pm. Loads decided to get off the plane, but bringing steps would mean losing the waiting slot so, if anyone got off, the whole trip would be off.
“They got a take-off slot but couldn’t get a slot in Porto for landing due to weather for a further 30 mins, which would have been 4.15pm take off. I spent over nine hours at the airport and 90 minutes on a stationary plane.”
Some of the Manchester United fans who did make it to the Dragao (Zohaib Alam – MUFC/Manchester United via Getty Images)
At 5pm, Manchester United sent the fans a message.
“We’re sorry to hear that your trip with Sportsbreaks.com was cancelled today. As a gesture of goodwill, next week we’ll send you a complimentary ticket to our UEFA Europa League game against Bodo/Glimt (28 Nov). Thanks as always for your continued support, which is very much appreciated — you will still receive a credit for the game.”
Eliot Hawkins was on the plane with his father.
“The most frustrating thing for me is that, because I’m a member and not a season ticket holder, tickets for games (in the UK) are extremely limited.” There was space for Hawkins and his dad on the plane to Portugal. Not that they got there.
Soon after, Sportsbreaks sent an email apologising. Jon and Alex got home 14 hours after leaving for what turned out to be a day trip to Manchester Airport.
The Athletic contacted AlbaStar on Thursday for comment and has yet to hear back. The Athletic contacted Sportsbreaks on Friday afternoon, when we also requested a comment from Manchester United. A club spokesman replied immediately saying: “Manchester United is very sorry for the disappointment experienced by the impacted fans. They will receive a full refund from our travel partner Sportsbreaks.com, and as a thank you for their continued support a complimentary ticket from the club for our Europa League home game against Bodo/Glimt.”
The story of the cancelled flight spread on Thursday, but scores of other United fans who tried to get to Porto did not make it either. With fewer direct flight to Portugal’s second city than, say, Munich, Istanbul or Copenhagen where United played European games last season, connections were required and many were not made.
Andy Valentine set off from Manchester the day before the game.
“We set off on Tuesday from Manchester, flying to Barcelona at 9pm for our connection,” he says. “The flight was delayed and delayed. At 1am they boarded us — boarding took an hour. Then they told us all to get back into the terminal. Then there was no information beyond that. We slept on the floor in Manchester.
“We then got on a flight to Barcelona at 7.30am. We’d missed our connection to Porto and the airline wouldn’t forward us another flight. We bought a new ticket for €220 (£184; $241) each to Porto and had a day in Barcelona. At 9pm we were supposed to fly. We sat on the plane for an hour before they told us we were going to Lisbon as they couldn’t land at Porto. Fog. Coaches would be put on for us from Lisbon to Porto.
“When boarding was complete, the captain said: ‘It’s a short flight to Santiago de Compostela’. Everyone was looking at each other confused. We arrived there at midnight but nobody was at the airport to give us news. We were quoted €500 to go to Porto in a taxi and some other fans did pay that. We stayed in Santiago airport — a second night on the floor.
“After a few hours’ sleep we were working out how to get to Porto when a diverted flight from Belfast arrived. Lots of United fans were on it. Those fans got back on the plane, set to continue to Porto. We weren’t allowed on as we weren’t originally booked on that flight. They changed their minds, let us on and we flew — for 15 mins — to Porto at 7am on matchday. When we got there we had two hours’ sleep; we had seven hours sleep in three nights.
“What I’ve learned from this whole experience is that concrete airport floors are not good to sleep on.”
Andre Onana applauds the Manchester United fans at the game (Eric Verhoeven/Soccrates/Getty Images)
David Pye, from Stretford, was another. “We were supposed to fly Manchester to Porto via Paris on Wednesday. As soon as the doors closed on the flight to Paris, everyone got a text to say the Paris to Porto flight was cancelled. The airline sorted us a Paris hotel by the airport.”
Pye’s return journey was also delayed and he arrived back at 5am on Saturday — five hours late. Panny, another fan who travels home and away with United, did not get beyond Paris on the way out. He tried and failed to get a connection to Porto on matchday.
The Athletic spoke to numerous other fans who were seriously delayed and had to buy new flights. Some made it to Porto, some got as far as other European cities before running out of time.
There were some positives. Tickets in the United section cost €40 only thanks to UEFA listening to supporter groups like Football Supporters Europe (FSE) and implementing change. They will be lowered next season to €35 in the Europa League and €50 for the Champions League. United fans were often charged between €75-119 on previous trips to Iberia.
The game wasn’t bad either — at least for neutrals. Not that any of the travelling fans would be described as such.
Porto’s many clouds perhaps had a silver lining for the fans who missed out. While none of the fans go solely for the match, there was still no win in Europe — though Harry Maguire made sure it wasn’t a complete washout.
(Top photo: Zohaib Alam – MUFC/Manchester United via Getty Images)