Tens of 1000’s stranded in half-term flight cancellation chaos

Tens of 1000’s of British travellers are stranded at airports throughout Europe by an estimated 200 flight cancellations over the weekend.

More than 100 flights to and from the UK had been cancelled on Saturday by a mix of employees scarcity and air-traffic management restrictions.

So far at present dozens extra have been grounded, primarily by easyJet. Many of these stranded are households hoping to return residence after half-term holidays.

In phrases of sheer numbers, Gatwick has by far the most important downside. The predominant airline there, easyJet, has to date cancelled round 40 flights, with others on Wizz Air and British Airways additionally grounded.

Destinations embrace Greek and Italian islands comparable to Corfu, Sardinia and Sicily.

Many 1000’s of British holidaymakers had been as a consequence of return on Saturday and are nonetheless looking for alternate options. While nearly all of flights are nonetheless working, they’re very closely loaded.

All passengers are entitled to various flights as quickly as doable together with on a rival airline; a resort room till they will journey; and, if the airline is accountable, money compensation.

At Bristol, at the least a dozen easyJet flights are cancelled, with most passengers getting just some hours’ discover. Destinations embrace Malaga, Lisbon and Berlin.

Alexander Coombs informed The Independent: “I have received a text message saying my flight has been cancelled from Berlin to Bristol today so I am now stranded in Berlin.

“I cannot get hold of anyone to help me from easyJet. Any ideas on how I can get help? The next flight is Thursday!

“I am trying to look for other flights to a different airport in the UK but there doesn’t seem to be any today either?”

British Airways has cancelled a median of 100-plus flights per day for weeks, drastically decreasing the variety of  accessible seats to and from the UK.

There are additional cancellations at Luton on easyJet – eight to date, together with Barcelona and Nice – and one at Manchester, a round-trip to Amsterdam.

Other airways are affected, with Wizz Air grounding flights from Gatwick, Luton and Doncaster Sheffield.

Kam Hosseini is in Faro in Portugal after his Saturday night Wizz Air flight to Cardiff was grounded “minutes before check in by text message”.

He stated: “No representative from the airline at the airport, just given a piece of paper and told the next flights to the UK we can get on are Wednesday onwards.

“Stuck in Faro and no sign of any flights anytime soon.”

While various airways can be utilized, and the price charged to the cancelling airline, for a lot of passengers the alternate options are troublesome to seek out after wholesale cancellations over the previous week.