Bristol Airport passengers 'in tears' after TUI flight delayed by 20 hours

TUI passengers at Bristol Airport were left 'in tears' after their flight was delayed by more than 20 hours.

Holidaymakers arrived at the airport on Saturday (June 18) hoping to fly to Paphos at 1.35pm, but their flight was repeatedly pushed back until 9am on Sunday.

One passenger, who asked not to be named, said she arrived at the airport at 10am on Saturday with her children.

But the flight was delayed until 2.36pm, then 3pm, and then again until 4.20pm, before it was eventually pushed back to Sunday morning.

She says they were given £8 worth of food vouchers per person, but that there was no gluten-free food available at the airport for her child.

She said her younger child slept on her lap until 10pm, when a taxi arrived to take them to Cardiff Clayton hotel.

She said there were 'no staff to help' and that she tried to get hold of TUI on the phone and Facebook to no avail, with only 'police to drip-feed limited information'.

She added: "So many flights delayed yesterday and again today and no one from TUI on hand to offer assistance.

"It's disgraceful they take people's money and treat you like this," she said.

She says she and her children had to get a 5.50am taxi from Cardiff back to Bristol Airport hoping to catch their flight, but she had still not boarded as of 9.45am.

Another passenger, Kirstie Smith, also said that there was 'no communication' from anyone from TUI or from airport staff.

She said: "Elderly people (were) left stranded with no information. Families with children and babies also. Everyone left sat on the floor with not one bit of communication other than hotels are being sourced."

She added that as Bristol residents they wanted to go home overnight, but were told to stay as a group with the other passengers.

A spokesperson for TUI said: "We’d like to apologise to customers travelling on TOM6676 from Bristol Airport to Paphos which was unfortunately delayed due to a technical issue. We can confirm this flight landed in Paphos yesterday afternoon.

"We aim to communicate with customers as quickly as we can if there are any changes to their holiday and offer transport, overnight accommodation, meals and refreshments as needed.

"We understand that last minute delays and cancellations are incredibly disappointing and would like to reassure customers that we do everything we can to get them away on their holidays as planned.

"We’d like to apologise again for the inconvenience passengers travelling to Paphos experienced and we thank them for their understanding."