Our Madeira holiday turned into hellish ten-hour day trip

A COUPLE had ‘a ten-hour day trip to Madeira’ after their flight landed on the Portuguese holiday island only for them to be told British travellers were barred.

Nikki and Max Wright couldn’t believe their luck when their British Airways flight took off from Heathrow on Monday morning, whisking them away on their Christmas break.

What they didn’t know was that the flight had gone ahead despite the Portuguese government imposing a travel ban on UK holidaymakers the night before.

The couple, from Poole, Dorset, said that no sooner had they touched down on Madeira than the captain announced that the 25 British passengers on board were not allowed off the plane. Mrs Wright, 59, said she and her husband, 66, waited on the runway for three hours while about 100 Portuguese nationals were allowed off the flight and returning Britons got on. The plane then took them back to London.

Mrs Wright said the experience, which saw them sat on the plane for more than ten hours, was ‘unbelievable’. They spent £4,000 -plus on the flights and a week in a five-star hotel. ‘If we’d cancelled, we would have lost every penny,’ she said. ‘We assumed that BA would only go ahead with it if it was OK to do so.’

Mrs Wright said BA has told them they are not entitled to compensation, although their flights and holiday will be refunded.

BA said: ‘The flight departed before airlines received official notification of a change in entry requirements from the authorities.’