EasyJet has cancelled a raft of flights at short notice, leaving families’ holiday plans in disarray.
Passengers flying with the budget airline reported being sent back home as flights were axed, sending their travel plans in turmoil, with others left stranded abroad.
Holidaymakers complained at the lack of available information, while others reported being sat for hours on planes that never even left the ground.
The airline said that ATC restrictions caused by poor weather had led to disruption on its network.
A passenger called Kate complained she had been stuck at Bristol Airport for seven hours, leaving her Turkish holiday ‘down the pan’, after she was forced to swap sun in Dalaman for a drive to Cornwall.
She told that passengers had boarded the aircraft where they waited an hour on the tarmac before they were told their flight was cancelled.
‘Apparently three flights to Dalaman have been cancelled this week’, she said.
‘There were rumours it was a staff problem but they must have known hours before. The flight was already late.
‘The crew had boarded at 4pm and they waited until 5.10pm to cancel. The systems are broken.’
Instead of being able to soak up the sun in Dalaman, Kate is now driving to Cornwall for her holiday.
She added: ‘I’m sure all the Turkish lire we bought will gain value.
‘It’s a scam. All you really want is fairness, clear communication and human interaction.’
John Done was with his partner at Liverpool Airport for five hours when he they were told at the gate their flight to Cyprus had been cancelled. The couple lost three nights of their all inclusive holiday.
He said: ‘Myself and partner were at Liverpool Airport for 5 hours today to be told at gate cancelled with no notice or explanation. I had to book with Jet2 for Sunday and reschedule hire car we were picking up.
‘It’s disgusting.’
At Manchester Airport, Bev and Wayne Holland were told their flight to Malaga had been delayed five hours, only to be then told it was cancelled and to be given just £3 in meal vouchers.
They said: ‘Our flight was due to leave at 5pm and this morning we received a message to tell us the flight had an hour delay, that soon increased to 5 hours, however clearly instructed us to still check in as normal.
‘Once in the lounge we settled for a hefty delay, the flight was scheduled for 22:00. About 4:30 we saw the flight was showing on screen as cancelled.
‘EasyJet say this was out of their control. The fact they knew this morning that flight was delayed how can that be out of their control.’
The chaos has also left people stranded overseas after return flights were stripped from the schedule.
Tracey Thomas told her daughter’s birthday trip to Rhodes, Greece had ended in disaster after she and her friends were told their flight back to Luton had been pulled three hours after it was meant to depart.
She said they were now stuck at Rhodes airport at 1am because the crew had gone over time.
Emma Ford and her partner Paul said their holiday in Lanzarote had been ‘tainted’ after they and Paul’s mother were left stranded for five days on the Canary island.
Their original flight home on Sunday was cancelled following a power cut at Manchester Airport.
They were offered an alternative flight to Liverpool on Wednesday evening after forking out funds for accommodation, only for airline to axe the replacement flight as well. They are still waiting for the airline to rebook them on another flight.
Ms Ford told : ‘We feel like we’re in groundhog day. We go to the airport and the same thing keeps happening. Tonight they have given us no information on the phone.’
‘All we get told, it’s like it’s their catchphrase, is ‘wait for an email’.’
Another traveller, Sarah Machete, said her wedding in Naples had been thrown into chaos after the airline cancelled her outbound flight today, offering her a journey on Saturday instead.
She wrote: ‘So…was just about to leave for the airport for our flight to Naples for our wedding & got a message from to say our flight has been cancelled.
‘easyJet response…. Your only option is the flight on Saturday! Zero s*** given by their customer service.’
Instead of travelling today, the bride-to-be has now been forced to fly to Luton before getting an onward connection to Naples at 6am tomorrow morning.
Another man on the same flight said that two days of his holiday had been struck off because of the last minute cancellation.
He wrote on X: ‘easyJet have cancelled our flight from Edinburgh to Naples and rebooked us so we lose nearly two days of our holiday. Why are we not booked on another airline to get us to Naples today.’
Guy Houston arrived at 5am with his family at Glasgow airport for a package getaway to Tunisia, only to be advised that their flight wasn’t going just 65 minutes before departure time.
He told the Daily Record that the family had been informed that the flight was cancelled due to storms, and that there were no easyJet staff to help.
EasyJet said it had done ‘all possible’ to minimise the impact of the disruption on passengers which it said was due to air traffic control restrictions.
‘We are sorry that the impact of ATC restrictions across the network yesterday, caused by adverse weather, meant that some aircraft were out of position this morning and as a result some flights to and from Edinburgh and Glasgow were unable to operate’, a spokesperson for the airline said.
‘We did all possible to minimise the impact on our customers and provided those on cancelled flights with options to rebook or receive a refund, as well as hotel accommodation and meals where required.
‘The safety and wellbeing of customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority and we would like to apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused as a result of the weather.’