Beds are laid out for passengers stranded in Europe for a second night as air traffic control misery continues with wedding plans left in chaos, stranded holidaymakers forced to beg for money and no flights to UK ‘for 12 days’
- Matthew Creed said it was ‘not ideal’ sleeping on a folding bed at the airport
- Tens of thousands of airline passengers have been left stranded across Europe
- Are YOU stranded at an airport? Email: [email protected]
Stranded passengers have been left to sleep on beds laid out on the airport floor and others are warned not to travel as an air traffic control glitch has caused hundreds of flights to be cancelled.
Matthew Creed, 26, became stuck at Schiphol Amsterdam Airport yesterday after his flight with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to Edinburgh was cancelled.
KLM booked him a new flight to Edinburgh departing at 9.50pm today, however, the drama student had to spend the night at the airport while waiting for the flight.
Mr Creed, noting how it was ‘not ideal’ sleeping on a folding bed with ‘pillows and blankets’ in the airport, later found out that KLM had booked him a hotel but claims the air carrier failed to inform him of this.
Tens of thousands of airline passengers have been left stranded across Europe after suffering flight cancellations due to the knock-on impact of an ATC fault, with some being told they won’t be able to get a flight home for a staggering 12 days.
Stranded passengers have been left to sleep on beds laid out on the floor at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Here is a view of the cot, pillow and blanket laid out for traveller Matthew Creed, 26, who became stuck at Schiphol Amsterdam Airport yesterday after his flight with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to Edinburgh was cancelled
Tens of thousands of airline passengers have been left stranded across Europe after suffering flight cancellations due to the knock-on impact of an ATC fault. Data shows at least 281 flights – including departures and arrivals – were cancelled today at the UK’s six busiest airports
Data shows at least 281 flights – including departures and arrivals – were cancelled today at the UK’s six busiest airports.
In the meantime, families have scrambled to secure hotel rooms for their unexpectedly prolonged stay, often at inflated prices, paying hundreds of pounds per night.
The boss of the Civil Aviation Authority confirmed today that passengers can expect to be provided with food and drink as well as accommodation if delayed overnight.
But scores of people reported having to spend the night sleeping on the floor of airports, with many more complaining about the lack of a proper meal.
Mr Creed, who worked in Hong Kong for three years, was initially flying from the former British city to Edinburgh with a stopover in Doha on Qatar Airways.
He had planned to see his family in Scotland before beginning his master’s degree in drama in London.
When he arrived in Hong Kong, Qatar Airways informed him that his ticket was on standby. Upon arrival in Doha, he was notified that he did not have a seat on the flight to Edinburgh, which was ‘nerve-racking’ for him.
Qatar then transferred him on a KLM flight to Amsterdam – he arrived at 3am on Monday only to discover the Dutch airliner had cancelled his next flight to Edinburgh.
‘(I) got to Amsterdam about three o’clock yesterday, waiting for the next flight about 4.50am, and then realised there was a massive queue in the middle of the airport,’ he recalled.
- Are YOU stranded at an airport? Email: [email protected]
Matthew Creed (pictured) said it was ‘not ideal’ sleeping on a folding bed with ‘pillows and blankets’ in the airport. He later found out that KLM had booked him a hotel but claims the air carrier failed to inform him of this
Matthew Creed paid for access to KLM’s Crown Lounges at Amsterdam Airport in order to have a shower and eat some food, with the hope of being reimbursed for the cost. Pictured are travellers preparing to sleep in the airport yesterday
‘People were heading towards the exit or towards desks for KLM, who were operating the flight that Qatar had put me on. Then I looked at the board and realised my flight was cancelled.’
He said: ‘They were helping people for a long amount of time, there were long queues, and there were only four or five agents trying to help people.
READ MORE: Mother tells how her two young daughters visited cockpit on Gatwick-bound flight from Croatia that was stranded on tarmac for more than three hours amid air traffic control chaos
‘Then they just kind of said we’re closing all of their desks and everybody needs to find their own accommodation or find out their own way to sort things out.
‘We heard that there was a gate at the end of the airport where they were putting out pillows and blankets and things, so that’s where we had to sleep last night… which wasn’t ideal.’
Mr Creed paid for access to KLM’s Crown Lounges at Amsterdam Airport in order to have a shower and eat some food, with the hope of being reimbursed for the cost.
He was informed by KLM the next morning that it had booked a hotel for him.
He said: ‘I was told, actually, we had a hotel booked for you last night, why didn’t you stay there?
‘I said, nobody has emailed me and let me know… I wasn’t able to speak to someone because all the desks were closed.
‘So I stayed in the airport for no reason.’
Another disrupted passenger, Michael McDonnell, a 28-year-old consultant from London, became stranded in Berlin with his partner Sarah, 28, for three nights after their British Airways flight was cancelled.
The consultant was meant to fly to Heathrow Airport from Berlin Brandenburg Airport at 9.20am on Monday before his flight was cancelled.
He said he received ‘very little communication’ from the British airliner before being notified that he and his partner had been rebooked on a flight leaving on August 31, stranding them for three nights.
‘They told us we need to give them a call to change and rebook our flight online, but we couldn’t get access online because the website wasn’t working,’ Mr McDonnell said.
‘We couldn’t call them as their line was too busy and then it would hang up.
Another disrupted passenger, Michael McDonnell, (pictured) a 28-year-old consultant from London, became stranded in Berlin with his partner Sarah, 28, for three nights after their British Airways flight was cancelled
‘We did end up getting through to someone and we got rebooked onto the next flight on Thursday morning.’
The couple returned to the city centre of Berlin and rebooked at a hotel they had previously visited for their bank holiday weekend.
He explained: ‘They (British Airways) didn’t pay for the hotel, we paid for it. We paid £150 per night for the hotel.’
In a statement, British Airways said: ‘Like other airlines operating in the UK, we are continuing to experience the knock-on effects of yesterday’s NATS Air Traffic Control issue, which includes unavoidable delays and cancellations.
‘Customers travelling today or tomorrow on short-haul services can move their flight to a later date free of charge if they wish, subject to availability.
‘We’ve apologised for the huge inconvenience caused, which was outside of our control and thank our customers for their patience as we work hard to get back on track.’
Schiphol Airport, Qatar Airways and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines have been approached for comment.
Ken Blanks, a 71-year-old from Bristol, said he and his wife had to turn down a £50 per night night hotel in Las Palmas until the next flight in just under two weeks because they cannot afford it.
He blasted easyJet for not offering them anywhere to stay and not communicating with them, telling The Sun: ‘I’ve finished my holiday in Gran Canaria but there’s nobody from easyJet talking to us. They don’t care a damn about us.
‘The next flight is in 12 days so we are stuck here. The airport offered some families with kids hotels but they have to keep getting taxis there and back. It’s 200 euros from the airport to the hotel. No one has the money for it. I can’t afford a hotel. And there’s nobody here to tell us anything.’
This evening easyJet announced it would run five repatriation flights to Gatwick following ATC fault. Flights will be offered from Palma and Faro tomorrow, and Tenerife and Enfidha on Thursday August 31 and from Rhodes on Friday September 1.
Larger aircrafts will also be used by the airline over the coming days on key routes including Faro, Ibiza, Dalaman and Tenerife to provide some additional 700 seats.
Stranded travellers reported having to pay hundreds of pounds for last-minute hotels – if they were lucky enough to get a room, with thousands of families, including some with babies, being forced to sleep on airport floors
Katrina Harrison and her family – including one-year-old twin grandchildren – stayed at Leeds Bradford Airport after their flight to Antalya was cancelled on Monday afternoon.
Ms Harrison, from Stockton-on-Tees, said: ‘We were given a bottle of water, a KitKat and a packet of crisps but no proper food. Apparently some people have got vouchers but we haven’t been given any.
READ MORE – MARK PALMER: The UK’s flight chaos is yet another travel foul-up… and with the worst possible timing
‘All the shops sold out of food and drink last night. We weren’t given a blanket, we’ve been absolutely freezing.
‘There were no hotels to stay in, we couldn’t get the car out of the car park.
‘We haven’t slept, we tried to sleep on the floor but couldn’t. Luckily the children could sleep in the pram.
‘The holiday was supposed to be a family celebration of a few things. We’ve spent £12,000 on it and we’ve been treated like muck.
‘We’re hoping to get on a flight tonight but if it doesn’t happen tonight we’ll have to go home. We can’t keep sitting here with the babies.’
Meanwhile, a couple face a race against time to save their dream Italian wedding amid the chaos.
Adam Ashall-Kelly, 35, and his fiancée Christine Marriott, 36, had their flight from Manchester to Verona cancelled on Monday, just days before they tie the knot near Lake Garda on Saturday.
However, the bride and groom-to-be need to register their marriage at a local court before they can be legally wed – and while they have managed to book on to a flight to Milan on Wednesday, they have ‘no idea’ whether that too will be cancelled, the BBC reports.
People at Palma de Mallorca airport waiting to board a flight, two days after dozens of flights were cancelled due to storm Betty
Tourists are stuck waiting at Palma de Mallorca airport just days after dozens of fights were cancelled due to storm Betty
Mal Dolby revealed how his son and three grandchildren are stuck in Bodrum airport in Turkey. He told MailOnline: ‘Easyjet are saying they can’t help, have offered no food or drink and told them the earliest flight back to Luton is not for 12 days.
‘They have no money, no one is helping them.’
Meanwhile, holidaymakers arriving at Manchester Airport today revealed how they were only told their flight had been cancelled at the boarding gate.
READ MORE: Tens of thousands of Brits could be refused compensation as airlines could argue delays were ‘out of their control’
Mental health worker Elisha Mullaney had booked a flight to Corfu with Jet2.
The 41-year-old said: ‘I received a text from Jet2 telling me to arrive as normal. We checked in our bags and went through security only to be told at the gate it was one of five flights to be cancelled.
‘It is very annoying and they must have known well in advance. It’s my son’s 16th birthday today, which makes it worse.
‘I tried to find alternative flights so we could still go but it was going to cost us £600 a ticket. The flight price had increased so much.
‘I’m just hoping we will get our money back and we can find something else quickly.’
Elisha, from Manchester, was going on a week’s holiday with her son Alex Ogden.
Mary Byrne, who was also on the same flight, said: ‘I don’t understand why Jet2 can’t just delay the flight.
‘They made us go all the way through the checking in process knowing they was no chance of us boarding and departing.
‘I thought everything with air traffic control would have been sorted by now. We are really disappointed.’
Kirstie Rowley, 52, a payroll and finance officer from Rochdale, was also travelling to Corfu on the 7.30am flight.
Kirstie Rowley, 52, a payroll and finance officer from Rochdale (pictured with Barbara and Chris Rowley), was also travelling to Corfu on the 7.30am flight
Builder Ashley Weaver, 35, waited three hours for his luggage at Birmingham Airport after he and his family flew home from a £12,000 holiday in Orlando, Florida
A screenshot shows the lack of flights available to passengers still stranded in Palma
She said: ‘We expected to be delayed with what we had seen on the news but we did think we would get away.
‘We had checked in, found ourselves a comfortable spot to wait and got a round of drinks. Then we were told the flight had been cancelled.
‘I’m going to have to go back into work tomorrow because if I don’t I won’t have enough days left to take later. I’ve already lost one day.
‘We were supposed to be meeting friends out in Corfu so I’m going to have to let them know.
‘We are going to try to get out later in the week and extend the holiday if the hotel is available.’
READ MORE – Terrifying footage from plane flying through Mallorca storm shows passengers screaming and crying as extreme turbulence causes some to vomit
Barbara Rowley, who is retired and in her 70s, said: ‘We’ve just tried to get a taxi home and were told it would cost £87. Only a few hours ago it was £40.
‘It is wrong. Everyone is trying to make a quick buck and cash in on what is happening. I am fed up and have been looking forward to this holiday.’
Chris Rowley, 51, a sheet metal worker, said: ‘It is always chaos over the bank holiday weekend. Something always seems to happen to cause delays and cancellations.
‘I am gutted because I’ve worked seven days a week for the past two weeks to get in front with my work because I knew I was going away.
‘Why did they make us go through security if they were just going to cancel the flight?
‘We have spent a lot of money already and all we have done is spend a few hours in the airport. I just hope we can fly out later in the week.’
One family of five from Manchester, stranded in Paris, revealed how it wasn’t just flights that were booked up, but they were unable to get on Eurostar or even ferry services from Calais to return home.
Instead, they ended up paying £300 to hire a car and drive three hours to Caen on Monday night, staying in a £150 hotel, before boarding a ferry crossing back to the UK today.
Jo Winter told MailOnline: ‘Honestly it has been a nightmare and it’s still not over as once on ferry tomorrow we have somehow got to figure out how to get from Portsmouth to Manchester.
Mary Byrne, pictured with Alex Ogden and Eiisha Mullaney was told her flight to Corfu was cancelled at the last minute
Adam Ashall-Kelly, 35, and his fiancée Christine Marriott, 36, had their flight from Manchester to Verona cancelled on Monday, just days before they tie the knot near Lake Garda on Saturday
Jo Winter and her children (pictured) ended up paying £300 to hire a car and drive three hours to Caen on Monday night, staying in a £150 hotel, before boarding a ferry crossing back to the UK today
Many passengers were forced to sleep on the floor due to a shortage of hotel rooms
‘This is our first abroad trip in four years and what was a lovely four day trip to Paris and Disneyland has ended in a extremely stressful situation.
‘Although not easyJet’s fault I will have my doubts to ever use them again as they provided no help or assistance – the ground staff just didn’t want to know.’
Sports journalist Tim Adams is enduring a similar, convoluted journey, spending the best part of £400 on getting back to the UK.
He has travelled from Budapest to Munich today, where he will then set off for Paris tomorrow.
A lack of Eurostar trains means he will have to stay in the French capital overnight before finally returning to London on Thursday evening.
‘I was told at the airport yesterday that the next flight to the UK from Budapest was on Thursday,’ he said.
‘I saw the notification [about cancellations] literally five minutes upon arriving at the airport. There was no to little information provided at the airport and I only found out our flight got cancelled via the Ryanair app as it wasn’t signalled in the airport.
‘Even two hours after it had been officially cancelled, the board at the airport still stated ‘delayed’.’
Jo Winter was enjoying her first family holiday with her three children (pictured) in four years before the chaos unfolded
Passengers queue up at 3.48am this morning at Manchester Airport’s Terminal One
Passengers queue for check-in in the car park at Manchester Airport’s Terminal One
At least four flights were expected to depart yesterday for Manchester Airport and Leeds and Bradford Airport but all were cancelled.
Jamie Sedman, 33, from York, told how he and his partner constructed makeshift beds from the Jet2 stands and a crate for their three children aged fifteen, nine and six, after being forced to spend the night in the airport.
He raged today: ‘I will never fly Jet2 again. It’s just been appalling. I’ve spent over £3,000 on this holiday and we had to sleep on the airport floor. We want something back for this.
‘Jet2 didn’t offer us anything. We had to force them to give us one blanket for the five of us and they didn’t want to give us that because they said other people hadn’t given the blankets back. They should have put us in a hotel.
‘They couldn’t tell us anything and said we knew more than them because we got an email to say the flight had been cancelled when we were waiting in the airport. ‘That was when the staff in departures were still saying our plane was on its way and was in the sky. There was no communication between anyone.’
Lorry driver Jamie was told that his Jet2 flight to Leeds and Bradford Airport was due to depart four different times but was still waiting to be checked-in.
‘We got to the airport three hours before our flight,’ he added.
‘The thing that really annoys me the most is no one knew what was going on. The reps at the hotel were appalling, I’ve never known anything like it. Ryanair kept people in their hotels.
‘Jet2 staff said the cancellation was because of the weather, not the air traffic problems, but they’re saying that because they can’t be blamed if it’s down to the weather.
‘There were about five hundred people here last night all waiting for four different flights which were cancelled. They told us they’d put us up in accommodation but we had to sleep on the floor. ‘They didn’t even give us a bottle of water.’
He and his family were later given a ten euro voucher for a coffee shop.
Jamie said: ‘I’ve spent a fortune on food and drinks in the airport. Burger King and WHSmith didn’t take the voucher, none of the places I went to would accept it.’
Uel O’Neill and Rachel O’Neill have had to spend £4,000 on a new Jet2 flight for this Sunday to get to Belfast with their children Tilly, 7, Sam, 8, and James, five, after their Easyjet flight was cancelled today
Mandy Calvert (right), 57, from Guisborough and her friend Shauna Smith (left), 32, from Middlesbrough both had to endure a night in the airport without any sleep
Mandy Calvert, 57, from Guisborough and her friend Shauna Smith, 32, from Middlesbrough both had to endure a night in the airport without any sleep.
Mandy said: ‘Jet2 have treated us with no dignity. We’ve had no sleep at all and just sat on our wet towels on the floor. Other people were sleeping on the floor and seats. I feel so sorry for people with little kids.
‘Jet2 staff were just stepping over people sleeping on the floor. They’ve shown no compassion and just hid in their office.’
The friends had a three-night break in Cala Mayor and were dreading having to spend another night in the airport for their flight back to Leeds and Bradford Airport. We’ve been awake that long we feel faint,’ said Shauna tearfully.
‘There’s no back-up plan, we’ve been through Covid and ash clouds. There’s no shower facilities here and everyone is just laying around on the floor. It’s been degrading to be fair.
‘I don’t feel able to drive from the airport when we do get back because I’ve had no sleep. My mum is going to meet us at the airport and drive my car, whenever we get home.
‘Even trying to get hold of people on the phone has been a nightmare as there’s only two or three plugs in the airport and everyone’s fighting over them to charge their phones.’
They were each given a 10 euro voucher but explained it could only be used in a coffee shop which didn’t sell proper food, just pastries.
Andy Bolton 42, Sandra Bolton 38, Lucie May Bolton, 7, and Jagger Bolton, 5, from Tarleton in Lancs give their experience the thumbs -down
Mike Pritchard, 40, a self-employed joiner from North Wales (pictured with his family), said: ‘We arrived at the airport this morning but have been told our flight is going to be tomorrow. They said it was because of the air traffic problems. So I’m having to pay for a hotel for the night. I can’t do anything about it, it is what it is.’
Shauna who started crying out of sheer frustration at the situation said: ‘We’ve been here since 5.50pm yesterday. We’re tired and emotional. We weren’t offered any accommodation last night, not even a blanket or a pillow.’
When they asked about their flight they were told it was delayed due to technical issues.
‘We’ve been told four different flight times. The staff are telling us different stories. There’s no communication between anyone.’
Chris Manning, 42, from Shropshire, was told his Jet2 flight to Manchester would be at 12.15pm. His family-of-four, comprising two children aged five and eleven, were told that there was no issue when they arrived at the airport.
He said today: ‘We’ve been here since 8am. We checked in and had gone through security. But we’re stuck at the airport because our cases have gone through and we’ve been told we can’t leave the airport. We’re waiting to get our cases back and we’ve booked into a hotel for the night. It’s cost £230 for the hotel and we don’t know how much we can claim back, but we haven’t got a choice.’
A father and his three children who had been holidaying in Alcudia were also left stranded at the airport.
Mike Pritchard, 40, a self-employed joiner from North Wales, said: ‘We arrived at the airport this morning but have been told our flight is going to be tomorrow. They said it was because of the air traffic problems. So I’m having to pay for a hotel for the night. I can’t do anything about it, it is what it is.’
Uel O’Neill and Rachel O’Neill have had to spend £4,000 on a new Jet2 flight for this Sunday to get to Belfast with their children Tilly, 7, Sam, 8, and James, five, after their Easyjet flight was cancelled today.
Mr O’Neill, 48, who said he wanted to swear but his ‘children were present’ raged: ‘I’ve had to spend another £4,000 on a new flight to get back and it’s also going to cost me for the hotel for another five nights’
‘The kids are all going to miss their first week back at school.’
Easyjet didn’t offer them a food voucher, water or accommodation and Jet2 was the quickest option to get back to Belfast, he added.
Passengers stranded overnight at London Gatwick Airport are pictured this morning
Scenes at Manchester Airport early this morning as queues build up at Terminal One
Passengers stranded overnight at London Gatwick Airport are pictured this morning
Passengers queue up at 4.20am this morning at Manchester Airport’s Terminal Two
Company director Andy Bolton, 42, from Tarleton in Lancashire, travelling with wife Sandra, 38, and children Lucie May, seven and Jagger, five, said: ‘We boarded the plane at 11.20am yesterday and we were sat on the plane without moving for seven hours with a five-year-old and a seven-year old.
‘When we first got on the crew didn’t tell us anything, then they said there was a problem with London air traffic. They said there was a 10-hour delay after sitting on the plane for seven hours and now it was only two.
‘We got a glass of water each which we didn’t have to pay for. But we had to buy other food and drinks and they were running out of food and juice for the kids. By the time they got to my aisle there wasn’t much left.
‘There were lots of kids onboard, a pregnant woman and another woman with a baby sat on her knee for seven hours.’
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Andy explained that the crew told them that if the flight was delayed any longer they would go out of hours and be unable to fly them back.
He added: ‘That’s when they kicked us off the plane. They told us a transfer would be waiting for us to take us to a hotel and we’d be brought back the next day for our flight.
‘We walked off the plane and three Jet2 staff looked at us and said ‘why are you getting off the plane’? They didn’t even know we were coming back into the airport.
‘All the passengers had to wait a further three-and-a-half hours for their luggage to be offloaded
‘Then we were told that we had to get our own hotel and transfer because Jet2 couldn’t get a hotel for all of us.’
Andy had thought ahead and booked a hotel and sent his family there whilst he waited for their luggage.
But some people weren’t as lucky. ‘One woman left without her luggage to stay in a hotel, she had no milk for her baby as the shops were all closed and the baby had to cry itself to sleep,’ he said.
‘Another woman in her sixties had to sleep on the airport floor.
‘Other passengers were taken to a hotel for two hours to wash. It was absolute chaos in the hotel apparently.’
The passengers were told that their flight would depart today at 5.05pm but at 4pm local time were still waiting in departures.
At Heathrow, passengers revealed how they had to make last minute changes to their travel plans following the air traffic control chaos.
Steven Williams, 26 said that he was initially due to fly to Brussels on Sunday from Stansted on a budget airline.
But after the flight was cancelled, he travelled down to London, had to stay overnight in a hotel and then booked on Brussels Airline.
He said: ‘It’s cost me another £400 for the hotel and new flight but there’s not much I can do about it because I have to be at work this evening. I was only on a short visit to the UK and I wish I hadn’t come.
‘I don’t understand how, in this day and age, the air traffic IT system could collapse like this? It’s a joke and it’s ruined things for a lot of us.’
Passengers stranded overnight at London Gatwick Airport are pictured this morning
Passengers queue for check-in at Manchester Airport’s Terminal Two this morning
Ray Edwards, 58 from Essex had his flight to Denver cancelled yesterday.
He said: ‘I had to book a hotel near Heathrow but luckily my flight is going out today. I don’t understand why there’s always some kind of travel chaos in Britain when there’s a bank holiday?
‘The hotels around the airport put their prices up and I hope the airline are going to refund me because it wasn’t cheap.’
Elsewhere, Alexandra Williamson, 45, from Birmingham, was due to fly to visit her daughter in Prague when her flight was cancelled at the last minute.
The chaos meant she was forced to fly to Germany before catching a connecting flight to Prague.
The mum-of-one said: ‘My flight was cancelled one hour before I flew. The airline booked us in the hotel, we had to wait for six hours for the hotel, but then there were more delays as people were waiting for the rooms.
‘Now I’ve had to fly to Frankfurt, and then wait to get to Prague. I’ve had to fly to Germany with Lufthansa.
‘I’ve only been here to see my daughter for a quick weekend. I had to call work and rearrange everything.
Holidaymakers have been warned not to travel where possible with the chaos set to last for several days, despite the seven-hour ‘network failure’ that left passengers stranded in airports
Pictured: Mandy Calvert sleeping at the airport in Palma last night
Delayed holidaymakers slept on the floor at the airport in Palma yesterday
‘You didn’t know what was going to happen. At Birmingham they kept us in a queue. It was scary.
‘I finally flew to Frankfurt this morning and I will be in Prague about 2pm. I’m really not sure what to think, it was really messy.
‘If someone told us before, a few hours before, but it was only an hour. It was really stressful.
‘We didn’t know what was going to happen. It was stressful, finding people to ask. We didn’t know what’s going to happen. We found one lady and she helped us.’
Nick and Gemma Furlong were forced to wait seven hours in Gran Canaria Airport with their one-year-old daughter after their flight was cancelled.
Nick said: ‘We were waiting for about seven hours for our flight back to Birmingham.
‘The most frustrating part was not knowing how long it would be and all the flights before ours that were waiting a while and were cancelled.
‘We’ve got a one-year-old with us and think the most challenging part in the airport was that there was nothing open.
‘We’re there during the night with no food or drink or anything to keep us occupied or refreshed.
‘I think it would have been a lot easier in the daytime with facilities. It was very frustrating.
‘We flew from Gran Canaria. It was during the middle of the night, but we set off at quarter to four in the morning.’
Builder Ashley Weaver, 35, waited three hours for his luggage at Birmingham Airport after he and his family flew home from a £12,000 holiday in Orlando, Florida.
The married fater-of-two, from Smethwick, said: ‘There was a baggage delay of three hours. It got quite heated between Tui and Birmingham Airport. One of the representatives for Tui had to leave. They didn’t give any explanation for it.
‘We saw the delays from the air traffic control. We were willing to be stuck in the airport.
‘For baggage, if we left we couldn’t get back in. We couldn’t get food. My holiday was end to end was £12,000 but that’s a not small amount of money.
‘There was no real reason for the delay. The airport just said it’s not our fault.’
Several passengers at East Midlands Airport booked overnight hotel stays at short notice due to the air traffic control disruption, in the hope they can depart on Tuesday.
Cancelled flights are displayed on a departures board at Stansted Airport
Passengers at Stansted faced long waits today for more information on their flights
Michael and Chloe Kennedy, from Meath in the Republic of Ireland, were due to fly home on Monday after attending a festival but their flight cancellation meant they have had to take unpaid leave to cover the extra day and do not know whether they will be compensated.
Mr Kennedy said: ‘We queued for ages to leave our bags and just as we got to the front it was on our phones that the flight was cancelled.
‘It was chaotic, (staff) were trying their best in there but a lot of people were not happy.
‘Eventually we just left and booked a space in a hotel.’
Mrs Kennedy added: ‘Our flight was at 8pm and we were not told until 6.30pm, but we were lucky that we had not put our bag through security as some people were not allowed back through because of the risk, staff said.
‘They had to return duty free items and things, it was all a bit mad.’
Angela Sykes, from Nottingham, is due to travel on the 11.25am Ryanair flight to Dublin on Tuesday, which remains scheduled to depart on time, with her family for four days.
She said: ‘The first we heard about the issues was this morning when we put the radio on.
‘It’s our first holiday since November – it means we’ll be sat in the airport a little bit but I don’t care, I’m going away.
‘We heard the radio and said, ‘Oh well, we will go the airport and if we get there, we get there’ – we like to go with the flow. There is nothing to worry about on the app but we will soon find out.’
Frustrated passengers wait at Stansted Airport for more information on their flights amid the chaos
Passengers wait at Stansted Airport, north of London, on August 29, 2023 after UK flights were delayed over a technical issu
The Government was working with airlines today to help ensure passengers stranded in airports across Europe can get home.
More than 1,500 flights were cancelled yesterday when air traffic controllers were forced to switch to manual systems due to a technical problem. That left thousands of passengers stuck at airports in Europe and further afield.
Mark Harper, the transport secretary, warned it would take days to resolve the issues, even though the fault was fixed after a few hours yesterday. The cancellations hit airline schedules, meaning planes and crews were out of place.
Ryanair, Europe’s biggest airline, would be operating a normal schedule by Wednesday, said boss Michael O’Leary, as he criticised how Britain’s National Air Traffic Services (NATS) had handled the situation.
‘We still haven’t had an explanation from them, what exactly caused this failure yesterday and where were their back-up systems,’ Mr O’Leary said in a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he understood people were frustrated.
‘The transport secretary is in constant dialogue with all the industry participants. He will be talking to airlines specifically later today and making sure that they support passengers to get home as quickly as possible,’ Mr Sunak said.
Mr Harper chaired a meeting today with NATS, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), airlines, airports, trade bodies and Border Force. He said the government will be reviewing a report from NATS in the coming days.
He said government officials did not believe the technical problem, the first on this scale for a decade, was the result of a cyber attack.
More than 1,500 flights were cancelled yesterday when air traffic controllers were forced to switch to manual systems due to a technical problem. That left thousands of passengers stuck at airports in Europe and further afield. Pictured: Passengers stuck at Heathrow Airport today
The transport secretary warned it would take days to resolve the issues, even though the fault was fixed after a few hours yesterday. Pictured: Passengers at Heathrow Airport as disruption from air traffic control issues continued today
Aviation analytics firm Cirium said 790 flights departing British airports were cancelled and 785 flights due to arrive were cancelled yesterday, meaning just over a quarter of all flights into or out of the country were affected. Pictured: Travellers at Heathrow Airport today
Aviation analytics firm Cirium said 790 flights departing British airports were cancelled and 785 flights due to arrive were cancelled yesterday, meaning just over a quarter of all flights into or out of the country were affected.
British Airways said it was working hard ‘to get back on track’ and had offered passengers flying short-haul routes to change their flight dates free of charge.
EasyJet said that the knock-on impact meant some flights were cancelled on Tuesday morning.
Heathrow Airport, Britain’s busiest hub, told passengers to contact their airline before travelling to the airport.
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