The airline confirmed the cue has since been returned as they apologised for the delay and said they are ‘looking into’ incident
NI snooker star Mark Allen has slammed easyJet after the airline lost his cue following his success in the Players Championship final.
The Antrim native took to social media on Monday night just hours after earning a hard-fought 10-8 win against Zhang Anda to claim the 11th ranking title of his career.
He lashed out at the low budget carrier and global airport handling company Swissport on X a short time later.
“Nine hours after winning another ranking title and getting to a career high number 2 in the world, @easyJet @swissportNews have lost my cue and both have been worse than useless at providing any information,” he posted.
“Nice firms.”
EasyJet has confirmed the cue has since been located and was returned to Mr Allen on Tuesday.
“We are sorry for the delay in reuniting Mr Allen with his snooker cue which we returned to him this morning following his arrival in Belfast yesterday evening and we are looking into this with our Baggage Services partner at Belfast as this isn’t the level of service we expect for our customers,” a spokesperson said.
The snooker pro saw the funny side when fellow competitor Neil Robertson suggested he invest in an Air Tag.
“I’ve got one in my case,” he replied.
“I know where it is. They don’t.”
The tracking device showed his cue was still in Birmingham Airport and hadn’t moved for several hours.
“@swissportNews could you please provide an update on my message snooker cue,” he posted on X.
“This is very important. Thanks. It’s currently sat in Birmingham airport and hasn’t moved in 7 hours.
“Thanks in advance @WeAreWST.”
It prompted fans to ask why Mr Allen did not take his cue on the plane, but he explained they are not allowed onboard.
It comes after Irish golfer Joe Lyons expressed hope of being reunited with a precious trophy after fearing it had been binned, when Ryanair staff refused to allow him to bring it in the cabin following his success in Spain.
The Offaly-born 51-year-old was thrilled to win the Spanish Seniors Amateur Open by four strokes at Real Club Sevilla Golf on Sunday.
However, he got into difficulties at Seville Airport when he couldn’t fit the silver cup in his hand luggage and was forced to leave it at the gate to be binned later by staff.
“We got to the checkout, we had our hand luggage with us and I had the trophy,” Lyons reported.
“So I went up to the desk and the staff said we couldn’t board with the trophy unless we could put it in our hand luggage.
“Vera [my wife] tried to put it into her hand luggage, and she actually got it in a good bit of the way, but the zip on her luggage wouldn’t close.
“And they said, ‘No you have to be able to close all the zips’. So I said, ‘You know what folks, just leave it there. You can keep it if you want.”
“I threw the toys out of the cart. And the woman behind the desk said, “Well, we can’t keep it.” So I said, ‘Do what you want with it?’ I. ‘I’m going home’ and walked down the aisle.”
Ryanair representative phoned Lyon to apologize for the incident and promised the trophy would be flown back to Ireland and taken directly to his home in Galway..
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