Simon:'So Pierre, how was your flight? It takes about 2 hours to travel by plane from Paris to Madrid?'
Pierre:'Normally, the journey is about that. This morning the flight was ok. The plane was scheduled to leave at 7.30am, but it didn't take off until 7.50am. So the flight was delayed from leaving the airport by 20 minutes, which isn't really bad.'
Simon:'Last week I had to fly to Rome for the day. Unfortunately, the return flight back was cancelled.'
Pierre:'Was it because there was fog at the airport. Planes don't leave or arrive if the pilots can't see because there are clouds on the ground.'
Simon:'No, it wasn't because of the weather conditions. The pilots and aircrew had decided to suddenly go on strike because they weren't happy with the pay increase they had received. So I had to book a new flight for the next day with a different airline. So, I had to stay overnight in Rome, in a hotel close to the airport.'
Pierre:'My god!'
Simon:'Were there many people on the flight this morning?'
Pierre:'Yes, there were. The plane was packed this morning. There were no free seats. It was strange because when I normally fly early in the morning, the flights are half-empty, so you have a seat to leave your things on. There was also a long queue to go through the security check. It normally takes 10 minutes to go through the security check, but this morning it took 30 minutes. So, by the time I arrived at the gate, the flight was already boarding. I was one of the last to get onto the plane. And as I said, the plane was full and there was no space left in the overhead locker to put my bag in. So I had to put it under my seat.'
Simon:'Wasn't there an international tourism conference in Paris that finished yesterday?'
Pierre:'That explains why there were a lot of people.'