A Scottish family has been left heartbroken after easyJet canceled their summer holiday with just hours’ notice.
Ross was due to fly from Glasgow to Enfidha in Tunisia on Thursday for a sunny holiday with his wife and two daughters.
But after waking up in the early hours of the morning to get ready to go to the airport, he received a text message saying their flight, which was due to depart at 7:20 am, had been cancelled.
In a desperate attempt to sort out their holiday, the family went to the airport to try to speak to easyJet staff at the travel hub.
The father went to the airline after no staff were found and they were told to arrange their own holiday or “go home and wait”.
After calling the airline’s call center several times, the family was offered a seat on a flight from Birmingham at 3:20 p.m.
However, Ross said they were told they had to come to the city themselves, which “wasn’t possible”. As a result, their entire vacation was canceled.
Ross told Glasgow Live: “It’s a complete mess.”
It was heartbreaking… the kids don’t understand. They just stood there sobbing. This whole process has been a complete disaster
Rose
But he said the worst part of the experience was seeing how upset his two daughters were after looking forward to the holiday for months.
The family booked the trip to Tunisia in January and they had all been counting down until it was time to go.
Most read in The Scottish Sun
Ross added: “It was heartbreaking.
“The whole thing was already an inconvenience for us, but the children don’t understand it.
“They just stood there sobbing. This whole process has been an absolute disaster.
“We will never use easyJet again.”
Ross and his wife have managed to book another holiday on flights leaving tomorrow, but this means they have spent almost £5,000.
However, EasyJet has only agreed to refund the cost of the canceled flights – which amounted to around £1,700 – and it will take around a week or two for the claim to be processed.
Until the family receives the airline’s refund slip, Ross cannot get a refund through his insurance.
It’s become a complete mess… We will never use easyJet again.
Rose
Ross and his family are just some of the many passengers whose holidays were affected by easyJet canceling a number of flights at Edinburgh and Glasgow airports on Thursday.
A flight from Glasgow to Tunisia due to depart just after 6am was also charged with just 65 minutes’ notice.
A customer service representative at easyJet’s call centre told passengers the cancellation was due to storms affecting flights in the UK.
A flight from Crete to Edinburgh, due to depart at 11.35pm last night, was also cancelled, with the crew blaming a “technical problem” with the aircraft.
Holidaymakers travelling to London, Malaga, Turkey and Greece reported being stranded and unable to find accommodation.
And we previously told about a bride who criticized EasyJet after the airline canceled her flight for her wedding just hours beforehand.
Sarah Machete was due to leave Edinburgh for Naples on Thursday morning for her special day this week.
EasyJet said on its website that the cancellations were due to “air traffic control issues” that were “beyond our control”.
According to the Independent, the airline said it was affected by the different slots and times being reallocated to Eurocontrol flights
Eurocontrol is an international organization committed to smooth air traffic management throughout Europe.
ADVICE FOR ABORTTED FIGHTS
EASYJET has shared information on their website about what to do if your flight is cancelled. It says:
If your flight is cancelled, there are several options available to you, which you can request quickly and easily by logging into Manage Bookings here on our website or via our easyJet app:
- Transfer to another flight for free.
- Choose a voucher for the full value of your booking.
- Request a refund.
For more information, visit our Disruption Help Hub . For information about your rights, visit our notice of rights page.
If your flight is canceled and the next available flight is not until the next day, we can offer you a hotel room for the night if you need it. If you qualify, you can request a room after connecting to a new flight in our app or in Manage Bookings.
If you require a wheelchair accessible room, please contact our customer service team who will be happy to book a room for you that meets your needs.
If you are at the airport and cannot connect to the internet, our ground staff can assist you.
We will always do our best to provide customers with accommodation. In times of widespread disruption this may not always be possible, so we may ask you to find your own accommodation.
If your flight is cancelled, we will try to arrange an easyJet flight to your final destination within 24 hours of your original flight.
Via Manage Bookings you can search for available flights and choose which flight you want to transfer to.
If there are no flights available that will get you to your destination within 24 hours, you can switch to another airline, take the train or bus, or rent a car to complete your trip within that time.
And a spokesperson told the Independent that the network had been hit by severe weather and thunderstorms in central and south-eastern Europe.
As a result of pilots maneuvering around the thunderstorms to avoid them, the flow rules have been disrupted.
This has led to a decrease in the number of aircraft that air traffic controllers can safely handle simultaneously.
An easyJet spokesperson told the Scottish Sun: “We are sorry that flight EZY3171 from Glasgow to Tunisia on 27 June was unable to operate due to the impact of air traffic control restrictions caused by bad weather.
Read more about the Scottish sun
“We have done everything we can to minimise the impact of the disruption. We have offered hotel accommodation and meals to those who need them. We have also offered refunds or free transfers to alternative flights to those whose flights were cancelled.
“The safety and well-being of our customers and crew is our top priority and while this was beyond our control, we would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused.”