Holidaymakers for Tenerife stranded at Cardiff Airport for 18 hours due to flight delay

The flight was cancelled at short notice due to technical issues.

Holidaymakers were left stranded at Cardiff Airport for a number of hours due to flight delays.

Passengers arrived at the airport on Friday morning (23 September) expecting to take a scheduled flight to Tenerife in the early afternoon.

However, they were left standing around for 18 hours.

The TUI flight was due to take off for the Spanish island at 2.10pm, but it was delayed at short notice due to a technical issue.

"It’s been absolute pandemonium."

Passengers were told they would be put up in hotels so they could catch a rearranged flight. By 8:30pm people were still waiting around with questions.

Passengers waited 18 hours for their flight.

According to Cardiff Airport's departure checker on Friday night, the TOM 6554 flight to Tenerife South had been delayed until 8am on Saturday (September 24).

Hilary Lynn from Merthyr Tydfil was hoping for a two-week holiday with a party of six, which included two of her infant grandchildren. She explained: "We’ve been at the airport since 10am this morning to check-in because there was an issue with the seats we’d booked with TUI.

"We’ve been waiting outside since 6pm with two young children and now (8.30pm on Friday) we’ve come inside to wait and we’re supposed to have a taxi in 40 minutes to take us to a hotel somewhere in Cardiff.

"But we’ve also been told that we need to get picked up again at 4.30am tomorrow morning to come back here. We don’t know where we’re going – we haven’t been told anything. There’s not one representative here from TUI."

"It’s the first family holiday for the kids – I don’t even want to go now."

Another holiday hopeful caught up in the confusion was Paul Newton from Caerphilly. He was due to travel on the same flight to Tenerife with his wife but they too were left unsure what to do.

Paul said: "I really feel for the people here with children. There’s some families here with eight or 10 people and they are really being put through the mill. TUI have had nobody here.

"My wife had an email saying the flight was cancelled due to technical issues but it’s been badly organised. There’s elderly people here, there’s children – I feel for them. It’s been absolute pandemonium."

TUI and Cardiff Airport have been asked to comment.