Children returning home from their holidays were left sleeping on the floor of an airport after being "abandoned" by easyJet, it was claimed.
Passengers returning to Liverpool John Lennon Airport from Izmir, Turkey, were reduced to tears and left with no food or water, they claim, after a long delay, according to the Liverpool Echo . One passenger who was returning from holidaying with her father said passengers were left without food or water for around seven hours while they waited for information from easyJet staff.
Claire, a holidaymaker from Croxteth, said they were "abandoned at the last minute" by easyJet as children lay asleep on luggage. Passengers received no update following the delay of the evening flight and she added passengers also had to help a wheelchair user after her chaperone left her.
The 32-year-old said "the communication was non-existent" and her partner knew more about the delays from looking at easyJet 's flight tracker app than she did sat waiting at the departure gate. An easyJet spokesperson admitted: "This is not the standard of support we expect for our passengers".
Claire said she arrived at the airport for her evening flight on July 27 but waited at the departure gate for an hour before being told by text message her flight was delayed. Claire said: "None of the staff knew what was happening or gave us any information. Children were falling asleep on the floor laid on their cases. There were people using wheelchairs just left.
"One lady had a chaperone who left her so we ended up taking her under our wing and pushing her around. We were moved to a different gate at one point. There was no system to it all and the organisation was awful.
"The airport was so hot, we didn't get offered any food or water and everything in the airport was so expensive - there was nothing available to us. Children were crying and no one was telling us anything."
Claire said eventually people were ferried to a hotel around 3am before returning to the airport hours later. She added their flight was then delayed, leaving the plane sitting on the runway for hours before they finally left.
Claire's new flight landed at Liverpool John Lennon Airport at 6pm yesterday, July 28 - around 24 hours after she was meant to have left Turkey. She said: "The crew coming back were really nice but other than that the communication was non-existent.
"People were stressed and worried. It was a massive relief to land back in Liverpool - I'm not one to clap the pilot when landing but it felt so good to arrive back. I'm not even back to work yet and I'm exhausted. I don't think I'll be using easyJet again."
A spokesperson for easyJet told the Liverpool Echo: "We’re very sorry for the overnight delay to the passenger's flight from Izmir to Liverpool due to a technical issue with the aircraft scheduled to operate the flight. The safety and wellbeing of our customers is our highest priority and we did all possible to minimise the impact of the delay for customers and arranged hotel accommodation, transfers and meals.
"We are sorry that the passenger felt let down by her experience in the airport and so we are looking into this with the airport and our partners at Izmir, as this is not the standard of support we expect for our customers. We are contacting the passenger to apologise for her experience and provide any further assistance she may need."
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