Ordeal of families stranded abroad

Now pupils risk missing crucial exams as flights chaos goes on

THOUSANDS of holidaymakers were scrambling to find alternative ways of getting home yesterday after hundreds of flight cancellations left them stranded in Europe.

Travellers crossed borders instead of waiting for later flights as they raced to return to work and school after half-term.

Many said they were forced to shell out hundreds of pounds for new flights or other modes of transport such as Eurostar trains.

Among them were teachers needing to get back to the classroom and A-level pupils who risk missing exams and even losing university places.

EasyJet has cancelled more than 300 flights across Europe in the past three days, with more than 2,000 delayed.

The budget airline said last night that it will continue to axe at least 30 flights a day with passengers set to typically receive just three days’ notice. Dozens of the cancellations were made at the last minute and affected customers said they were not being offered alternative flights home for several days.

This is despite them having the right to be booked on an alternative flight as close to their original departure time as possible – even if it is with a rival airline. They are also entitled to food and hotel expenses.

But easyJet customers said it was near impossible to contact customer services in search of answers.

Budget airline Wizz Air also made dozens of cancellations over the weekend. British Airways axed more than 100 short-haul flights at Heathrow yesterday, although it stressed that affected passengers were informed several weeks in advance.

Holiday firm Tui is cancelling six daily flights at Manchester until the end of the month.

The aviation industry is struggling to cope with the post-pandemic rise in demand for foreign travel at a time of severe staff shortages.

Some operators were accused of letting passengers make bookings that could not be fulfilled.

Father-of-four Joe Murray, from Milton Keynes, booked return flights to Tenerife which were due to land back in the UK on Wednesday in time for Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

But his family missed the four-day weekend after Wizz Air cancelled their return flight twice.

Mr Murray, who has four young daughters, said: ‘The curriculum is packed and losing three days from school post-Covid isn’t good. There isn’t time to really catch up.

‘Wizz Air have had since last Wednesday to get us home, have cancelled once while we had checked in and were waiting at the gate, and the other four hours before the flight. It’s not good enough.’

Kelly, a teacher from Lincolnshire, and her husband, who is also a teacher, had their flight home from Montenegro with easyJet cancelled at the last minute on Saturday.

They were told Thursday was the earliest they could get back to the UK. She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘They told us we could have a flight on Thursday.

‘But obviously we’re teachers so we’re very keen to get back to school so there’s less disruption for the children, which is why we’re travelling to a different country [to try to get home sooner].

‘We will have had three bus journeys of about 12 hours in total. Fingers crossed tomorrow easyJet won’t cancel our flight for a second time and we’ll manage to get home.

‘But we’re having to fly into Bristol rather than Gatwick, we’ve then got to get to Gatwick [to collect our car] and then back home to Lincoln.’

A blame game broke out between ministers and the industry over the fiasco last week.

Aviation chiefs sought to point the finger at the Government for not giving enough notice when lifting all Covid travel restrictions in March.

But Transport Secretary Grant Shapps accused carriers of ‘poor planning and overbooking flights that they cannot service’.

There are fears of even worse chaos when the peak summer season begins in around six weeks’ time.

Ministers are considering plans to force airlines to give automatic refunds for travel disruption.

Affected travellers, who must apply for compensation manually, have reported waiting several weeks to receive money back.

Some operators have claimed cancellations or delays are not their fault, meaning they are not liable.

Paul Charles, of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said ‘it will take three days to clear the backlog’ of passengers needing new flights.

He added: ‘We’re going to see a large number of compensation claims from those stuck abroad.’

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the aviation industry had to address staff shortages.

He added: ‘We fully understand that the aviation industry – like many others – has faced significant challenges during the pandemic.

‘But ultimately they are responsible for making sure they have enough staff to meet demand and we have been clear they must step up recruitment to make sure disruption is kept to a minimum.’

An easyJet spokesman said cancellations had been made due to ‘the ongoing challenging operating environment’.

She added: ‘We are very sorry and fully understand the disruption this will have caused for our customers.’

‘Three bus journeys taking 12 hours’