A family have described feeling 'trapped' and 'scared' after their flights were cancelled at the last minute, stranding them in Turkey, leading to costs of nearly £2,500 for new flights and hotels. It comes amid more chaos at Manchester Airport as mountains of abandoned bags are left after arrivals.
Michael Tierney and his family, including nine-month-old Ralphie, flew to Antalya, Turkey, 14-days ago and were due to fly back late on Tuesday (May 31) night. However, they say they arrived to find their EasyJet flight had been cancelled, leading to chaotic scenes for the many families present with no way of getting back home.
Ralphie cried so much he fainted and many others were left with no option other than to stay at the airport for the night, hoping for another flight to come up. Reports over recent days have suggested it's not just UK airports where travellers are facing troubles, with flight cancellations and passport checks causing chaos at airports.
READ MORE: Ryanair boss suggests bringing in army to deal with airport chaos
Speaking today just after he got home to Oldham, Michael said: "I should have been back three days ago. We were checking the flights on the app when we were travelling there on Tuesday night and it didn't say anything had changed.
"But, when we got there people were running around as the flight had been cancelled with no notice. We found a member of staff and asked what we could do but they just told us there were no more flights.
"We were just told to make our own way back and to sort it ourselves, a lot of people there had no money to do that. People just ended up on the floor with loads of kids crying. The only solution were were offered were flights the next day from Dalaman which is miles away."
Michael's brother was able to book him a flight back, but they had to wait three days for this. In this time, he had to buy more food for the baby and book more travel and hotels, coming to just under £2,500.
They say that other airlines were offering flights back to England for inflated prices after this, and all easyJet could offer him was a flight back to London, but without his whole family. "When we came back three days later for our return, there were families there that we'd seen on the Tuesday night sleeping on the floor. They couldn't afford to pay for more hotels so resorted to sleeping at the airport, it was terrible to see.
"It just felt like a complete shambles. Nobody was there to help. All I wanted to do was get my family home, I really didn't want to keep the baby going through this.
"Everyone was in shock. When we were told there were no more flights for days it was just so frustrating. How can they leave families just like that, it feels inhumane, people had to just sleep at the airport. No compassion at all, no one had anywhere to turn.
"We were all in the same boat, everyone was struggling to deal with it. We felt trapped in another country, it was scary."
Manchester Airport is still struggling too with passengers going through both departures and arrivals facing their own problems. Pictures taken in the early hours of this morning showed hundreds of bags left by passengers.
Yesterday video footage emerged of fed-up holidaymakers at Manchester Airport climbing through a baggage carousel curtain in a bid to retrieve luggage stranded behind it. Police were called to stop the passengers after travellers faced waits of more than three hours to get their bags.
One passenger said: "Passengers got annoyed because they could not get any answers. People were climbing and crawling through the curtain on the carousel belt trying to find their own luggage. The bags were there, but there was no one to put them onto the carousel."
Manchester Airport has referenced staff shortages as one of the reasons behind some extra delays. The boss of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, has now suggested that the army should be brought in to help at UK airports struggling to cope with half-term demands.
Regarding the situation, Mr O’Leary said “defence personnel with experience providing security” should be drafted in. He told ITV News: "Bringing in the army, which they do at many other European airports, would, at a stroke, relieve the pressure on airport security and would mean that people have a much better experience – not just this weekend, but for each weekend over the next three, four months.”
An EasyJet spokesman said: "We are very sorry that flight EZY1822 from Antalya to Manchester on 31 May was cancelled. We notified customers directly of their options to rebook or receive and refund and offered to provide hotel accommodation and meals where required.
"Nonetheless we fully understand the disruption this will have caused to their plans and we are very sorry for this. Our team are reaching out to Mr Tierney to apologise for his experience and to reimburse him and his family for their expenses."
