Passengers speak of 'nightmare' delays, cancelled holidays and sleeping on the airport floor

People who have had their holidays cancelled or spent nights sleeping on airport floors have hit out at a lack of communication from airlines.

Travellers flying in and out of the UK were hit with widespread disruption on Monday 28 August and Tuesday 29 August after "technical issues" with the UK's air traffic control system.

It sparked dozens of flight cancellations and left people stranded at destinations across Europe.

A family from Worcester have been left “absolutely devastated” after their one family holiday of the year was cancelled following two days of disruption at Bristol Airport.

Ant Langston had been due to fly to Dalaman, in Turkey, with his partner and 15-year-old daughter on Sunday 27 August.

They had arrived at the airport excited to start their holiday but bad weather meant that their Jet2 flight was delayed, and later cancelled. 

Ant booked the family into a hotel in Bristol and was told that he would receive information about a rescheduled flight later that evening. 

But when the air traffic control issues began on Monday 28 August, Ant was left guessing when his family’s flight would be departing. 

After waiting more than 30 hours at the airport, the family eventually found out their flight had been cancelled again “because the flight crews had run out of hours”. 

“The communication was terrible," Ant told ITV News West Country.

"The staff were misinformed, and so many lies were being told by Jet2. They cancelled three holidays on Monday evening with no apologies, just rudeness from the team,” Ant said. 

He’d been saving for the holiday, which was supposed to be a treat for his 15-year-old daughter, for the past three years. 

“Everybody is going on about the flights being cancelled, but entire holidays have been cancelled, and the hopes and dreams with it,” he said. 

For his daughter, who hasn’t been abroad for 10 years, the cancellation was “devastating”. 

Ant said: “She’s a strong little thing, but she did have a little cry. She was very, very upset. I can deal with life, but it’s broken my daughter’s heart. We’re genuinely all devastated.” 

Jet2 said that their teams had been “working incredibly hard” to look after their customers and is "extremely sorry" it had to cancel the flights.

A Jet2 spokesperson said: “We would of course like to apologise to everyone that is affected by this situation, which is unfortunately completely outside of our control."

They added they are "extremely sorry" to have had to cancel flights, but were "left with no choice".

'A nightmare'

Shauni Bates, from Swansea, was also left waiting for answers when she and her friend, Casey Jane Lewis, arrived at Bristol Airport at 2pm on Monday. 

They said they were told their Ryanair flight to Barcelona would take off at 6pm as scheduled, despite the ongoing issues with air traffic control. 

It was only at 8pm, after a two-hour delay, that they were told their flight had been cancelled. 

“The fact that they delayed the flight from 6pm until 8pm made us think we were going on holiday," she said. "Other companies had representatives at the airport, but there was no one there from Ryanair we could speak to. It was a bit of a nightmare."

With the next available flight not until Thursday 31 August, Shauni said she was left with no choice but to cancel her holiday. 

“It was a very heart-wrenching feeling. It was meant to be my second-ever holiday abroad, so it would have been nice to get away."

Shauni has now received a full refund from Ryanair but is hoping to receive some compensation from the airline.

Ryanair said they are "making every effort" to look after their customers and that all affected passengers have been notified of their full entitlements to a refund.

A spokesperson said: "We apologise sincerely to customers for these cancellations and delays which are a direct result of UK Air Traffic Control failure and beyond our control."

Elsewhere, demand for last-minute hotel bookings due to cancelled flights meant some people had to sleep wherever they could.

• Zac O'Donnell speaks of his experience

Zac O'Donnell, from Bristol, actually boarded the easyJet flight to Bristol from Barcelona on Monday 28 August before the plane was emptied again.

After his flight was cancelled, he found himself sleeping on the floor of Barcelona Airport as all the hotels were booked.

"There were no hotels, and I'd seen in the booking policy that you couldn't book your own hotels, so I just decided to sleep on the floor under the stairs next to the bin. It was freezing and quite a long night."

Like Shauni, he said he wished he had known about the delays sooner.

"We had radio silence for what felt like six to seven hours. There was nothing from EasyJet at all. Everyone in the airport was basically playing Chinese whispers."

easyJet said they have been doing "everything they can to minimise the impact of the disruption" and have been helping customers to transfer their flights and secure hotel accommodation where possible.

"While this is outside of our control, we apologise for the difficulty this has caused and we remain focused on doing all possible to assist and repatriate our customers as soon as possible at this very busy time of year," a spokesperson added.