Leave lanZarote because of virus

Husband and Wife not alloWed to

A COUPLE celebrating their wedding anniversary say they have been left stranded in Lanzarote by their airline with no advice on how to get home.

April Lewis and her husband Michael, from Fartown, jetted out to the Canary Islands on March 10.

But their holiday soon turned sour when the flight home was unexpectedly cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

They had been due to travel back to Manchester on Tuesday but were unable to board when they got to the airport.

Airline staff told them they wouldn’t be able to travel back until April 1.

April told the Examiner: “We weren’t informed by anybody that there was a cancellation or any issues with our flights home.

“We rang our travel agent and they advised us to just turn up on Tuesday and that our boarding passes would still be valid for the flight out.

“It felt at that point that there was no cause for panic as our travel agency had told us that we were still okay.

“But we got to the airport to be told that our boarding passes were invalid, because that flight no longer existed.”

The cancellation proved to be just the start of the couple’s issues, with no support or advice available from their airline, Easyjet.

“We received nothing at all to warn us of this and we have had absolutely no guidance,” said April.

“We were sent to a helpdesk, but there wasn’t a single Easyjet rep there, and we ended up with a piece of paper with a phone number on.

“But when we called that number it was just an automated service where you left your details and I’m still waiting now to hear back – we’ve not heard a dickiebird from them.”

April and Michael have been staying in a villa with two other marooned couples while waiting for their issues to be resolved, but it’s been far from an extended holiday for the pair.

The couple have had to pay for their own accommodation and food for the last three days and April is unsure about whether or not her travel insurance will cover any of the cost.

“It’s been EUR40 a night for three nights, as well as our own food for the time we’ve been here.

“We were all-inclusive, but obviously that’s long since ended and we’ve had to fend for ourselves.

“We’ve been grabbing whatever we can from the local shops, but there isn’t much, and last night we just had to make do with a couple of bags of crisps and buns.

“The local supermarkets here aren’t stocked that well, so it hasn’t been easy.”

To make matters worse, April suffers from arthritis in her spine and says the medication she packed for her holiday has now run out.

The couple are now booked to travel home today at a cost of EUR320, after assistance was provided by their travel agent, Sunmaster.

April said they were eager to get back to Huddersfield.

“It hasn’t felt like a holiday since Sunday, as we’ve been practically locked inside the hotel,” she added.

“We haven’t had any illness or symptoms ourselves, but we’ve certainly felt the effects of coronavirus during the last few days of our holiday.

“Everything’s been shut down, there’s nowhere open and we’ve not even been able to go for a walk on the street.

“I’m here with my husband, but we can’t even walk together. We have to walk on the opposite sides of the street, staying apart from one another.

“There are police cars everywhere and it’s like a barren country here now.

“We just want to go home.”

In a statement Easyjet said: “We are aware call volumes to our customer contact centre are currently very high due to ongoing uncertainty caused by COVID-19.

“If a customer’s flight is cancelled, they will be contacted by us and there is therefore no need to contact us.

“If a country changes their travel advice there will be a short delay in our flights being cancelled and following that rescue flights will be published.

“On average this is around 12 hours during which time our operations team are working to understand the restriction and the impact it will have on our flight programme.

“As soon as the revised flight programme is published the affected customers will be contacted via email and SMS to alert them.”