Travel disruption: Child "upset" over missing first day of school after family stranded in Turkey

A County Antrim mum who was stuck in Turkey amid ongoing travel disruption has told UTV about the ordeal of getting home again.

Emma Lloyd's youngest son was "a bit upset" he missed his first day of school after the family from Maghaberry village was left stranded in Dalman Airport by the fault in the UK's air traffic control system.

The glitch has been resolved, but the resulting delays are far from over as tens of thousands of travelers' flights were cancelled yesterday (Monday).

As well as getting the initial cancellation victims home, missed flights mean planes and crews not returning to their bases, leading to more delays.

Emma said that they slept on wooden benches most of the night, before being put on a bus to a hotel hours away "up some mountain".

They arrived at 6am, but had to leave on a coach back to airport a mere two hours later at 8.15am.

"There was no real point in going out to that hotel last night for the two hours," said Emma.

"It was such a long journey and a lot of angry, tired people and young children and there were some people in the airport that needed medicine and were without their luggage for quite a while as well."

Emma's children were due to start back at school on Tuesday.

"It's upsetting, especially for the wee one, because it is a new class for him and a new teacher. He wanted to go for the first day, it is only a short day for them and he wanted to be with all his friends.

"So he is a bit upset that he didn't get on his first day and there are a lot of things to sort out when we get home tonight, just to get them ready for their first day in school tomorrow."

The family will arrive home this evening after the long and tiring saga.

The National Air Traffic System, NATS, has apologised for the fault and said that passengers should contact their respective airlines with any questions.

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary posted a video message on Twitter, saying that 400,000 of their passengers were impacted.

He wants answers from NATS regarding why the fault happened in the first place, and why there was no back-up plan.

We've asked NATS for a response.

Meanwhile, Belfast City Airport and Belfast International Airport both say that some delays could still be expected today.

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