A man has vowed to "never fly easyJet again" after a twice-cancelled flight left him and other passengers "stranded at the airport".
Bobby Bessant was bound for Aberdeen from Manchester Airport but his flight was cancelled on both Thursday and Friday due to "problems with staffing’ and ‘air traffic control issue".
He hopes to return today but said it has “ruined what was a good break”.
The 33-year-old was aware of the ongoing travel issues but was astonished by easyJet's customer service - which he claims was "diabolical".
He told Manchester Evening News : “They left people stranded in the airport.
“It is absolutely diabolical. We were all stuck in the terminal because the flight had been delayed, you couldn’t get anything to eat or drink because everything was shut by then.”
He had been on hold to the customer service team for hours and was hung up on a number of occasions, he claims.
Bobby believes this treatment is unacceptable for something that has happened two days on the trot.
His flight was scheduled to go out on Thursday at 7.05pm but was delayed for almost three hours until it was cancelled.
The same thing happened again the next day and he just wanted to get home to his family.
Bobby was almost expecting the flight to be cancelled after his experience on Thursday night.
He believes easyJet have taken no accountability for their actions and was angry to see staff vacate the terminal on Friday before the tannoy announced the cancellation leaving 60 people waiting.
“From the word go I knew the flight was going to be cancelled,” he said.
“Being trapped in the terminal has really impacted on my mental health as I was on the verge of a panic attack.
“The staff couldn't care less. I just think easyJet are a bunch of liars.
“They knew that the flight was going to be cancelled but they never gave us the answers to our questions. We had to wait with nothing.
“You don’t expect this to happen to you twice in the space of two days though. There should have been at least one member of staff to tell us what was going on.”
Bobby suffers from a mild form of cerebral palsy which means he struggles to stand on his feet for too long.
He is currently awaiting an operation which means the long queues and waiting around left him in agony during this period.
“I was in agony,” he said. “I now think I should have asked for a wheelchair.”
Bobby said that despite having many good trips using easyJet, he will now no longer be using them for future flights after he was forced to ask pal Michael Thorneycroft to help him out
The airline stated that they would be in contact with him to apologise and reimburse him for the flights.
A spokesperson for easyJet said: “We are very sorry for Mr Bessant’s experience on his flights with us from Manchester to Aberdeen.
"His original flight from Manchester to Aberdeen was unfortunately cancelled due to air traffic control restrictions which meant the crew due to operate the flight reached their maximum legal operating hours.
“While this was outside of our control, we did all possible to minimise the impact of this and gave customers the option of transferring their flight free of charge or receiving a refund as well as providing hotel accommodation and meals where required.
"We rescheduled the flight for the following day, however, it was cancelled due to the crew unable to operate the flight without exceeding their legally permitted flying hours after assisting a passenger with a medical issue.
“Unfortunately no replacement crew were available to operate the flight.
"While we notify customers directly and provide options to rebook or receive a refund as well as hotel accommodation and meals, we fully understand the difficulty this disruption will have caused and are very sorry for this.
“Our team is contacting Mr Bessant to apologise for his experience and to reimburse him for any expenses. Once again we are very sorry for any inconvenience caused.”
