EasyJet has issued an apology to customers travelling from Malaga to Bristol after their flight was diverted to London Gatwick due to severe weather conditions. The budget airline said although the diversion last Friday was "outside of [its] control" it would "like to apologise for the inconvenience caused".
A spokesperson for the company said it did everything "to minimise the impact of the weather disruption" for its customers and that the safety and wellbeing of these customers was the airline's "highest priority".
A statement from easyJet said: “Due to the closure of the runway at Bristol airport yesterday (Friday) morning as a result of snow which caused disruption to airline flying programmes, flight EZY6054 from Malaga to Bristol was required to divert to London Gatwick.
Read more: Bristol easyJet passenger describes flight chaos as 's***show' after taking all night to get home
“The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority and we did all possible to minimise the impact of the weather disruption for our customers."
Customers affected by the disruption claimed they were told there would be coaches to take them to Bristol but after a two-hour wait, easyJet advised them to source their own transport which would be reimbursed if it was "reasonably priced".
The easyJet spokesperson also addressed these claims, saying: “Due to limited coach availability at London Gatwick, we sourced taxis for customers where possible and advised those that needed to source their own that they will be reimbursed. Whilst this was outside of our control, we would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused as a result of the weather.”
One couple affected was Bristol couple Dionne and Andrew German. Mrs German said their flight out of Malaga was delayed by over an hour and then “ten minutes” before they were due to land at Bristol Airport just before 11pm, the pilot announced the flight was being diverted to Gatwick Airport. She said: “The pilot said it was due to maintenance taking place at Bristol Airport. We had to wait for another hour to land as they had to squeeze us in at Gatwick”.
She said passengers were told there would be someone to direct them to coaches when they got to baggage collection. The coaches would be waiting outside the terminal to take them back to Bristol Airport.
She said: “There wasn’t anyone at the baggage collection, but we all made our way outside where we waited for another two hours. “There was another flight from Barcelona to Bristol which had also been diverted, so there were about 500 people waiting.
“It was a s***-show, there was hardly anywhere to sit. There was only one young woman from easyJet trying to help everyone, I was beyond furious,” she said. Then passengers received a text message advising them to take a taxi, which would be reimbursed by EasyJet if it was “reasonably priced.”
As a type 1 diabetic, Ms German was left feeling unwell as she normally has insulin at bedtime and it was the early hours of the morning. She said: “My insulin levels went sky high. There were people in wheelchairs and elderly, there was no food or drink offered to us or anywhere comfortable to sit.”
She and her husband, Andrew eventually shared a taxi with another couple and she said: “when we left, people were getting very angry.” They arrived back in Bristol just after 7am and had another hour’s drive to get home.
Many people took to social media about the chaos with flights being diverted from Bristol Airport with one Facebook post saying: “My parents were on this flight and eventually got a taxi at 4.20am as there weren’t enough taxis to accommodate everyone.
They were initially told to wait for coaches which would be provided, two hours later they were instructed to wait for a taxi sourced by EasyJet or they wouldn't be reimbursed. Then after 4 hours of waiting, sourced their own taxi. There was no-one at Gatwick to help passengers, no information for hours and no cares given by either the airline or the airport."
A spokesperson for Bristol Airport said: “It is a complex situation during flight disruption and all Bristol Airport, airlines and other business partners teams worked extremely hard to ensure flights continued to operate, whilst trying to meet the flight operation with the aircraft slots across the European airspace network.
“On Friday 10 March a small number of flights did experience disruption due to the reactionary impacts of weather from Wednesday and Thursday; low visibility and snow disruption being experienced across the UK; and French Air Traffic Control strikes (Thursday 9 March and Friday 10 March) all contributed to aircraft operating off schedule.
“It was a rapidly changing situation and customers were advised to contact their airline directly for the latest information on their flight. We appreciate and understand the frustration customers experienced during the delay and diversion situations, although all colleagues continued to work exceptionally hard to ensure customers were able to continue with their travel plans, where possible."
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