A mum has told of an "awful" experience that saw her autistic four-year-old son sleep on the floor at Manchester Airport after the family's flight to Turkey was cancelled. Lauren Kennedy and her partner Shaun were due to fly to Antalya on Monday for a five-star break, the Manchester Evening News reported.
But the disappointed family were forced to go home when their easyJet flight was cancelled after "hours" of delays. EasyJet has apologised, saying the cancellation was due to "air traffic control restrictions earlier in the day leading to the crew reaching their maximum operating hours".
The family, from Bolton, arrived in plenty of time for their 4.15pm flight, and had help through security due to their son's condition - but then heard news of delays. The boarding gate finally opened, and they made their way across hoping to board the plane.
Lauren told the MEN: "When we got to the gate they then gave us an update on the Tannoy and said it was another 40 minutes, so we all waited around. When we got to the gate though it was chaos, there was no airline staff and we were in a big queue of people. My little boy who is autistic didn't deal with it very well, he was screaming in the middle of loads of people because it was just a big crowd."
She said passengers were finally allowed on the plane and "everything seemed fine" - but the plane did not move, and they were informed of a further delay. They waited another hour before being told the flight could not take off.
She said: "They said something about the weather while other planes were flying off. They said crews had been working too long. It was hectic, everyone was shouting. One of the pilots came out to speak to us."
Lauren said passengers were advised to book a hotel and new flight on the easyJet app, but the app "was not working". She said passengers had to remain on the plane for a further 40 minutes before disembarking - and faced another hour-long wait to speak to an easyJet rep.
She said: "My little boy was asleep on the floor, I had to leave him with his sister as we tried to find some easyJet reps. Everyone was asking them questions and they didn't know. They gave us a leaflet. I asked how we can get a flight out tomorrow and they said to go on Skyscanner and pay for a flight out and go. There was five of us, it was coming up at £1,600 without luggage."
The next available easyJet flight to Antalya was scheduled for Saturday, so the family decided to return home and contact holiday site On the Beach, who had arranged their package.
Lauren said: "My middle child and the youngest didn't know about the holiday until yesterday morning, it was a surprise. It's my son's birthday today he was meant to be waking up in Turkey. I've got two kids saying 'are we going on holiday mum?'. It's the communication and the fact that we've had no help in any way."
A spokesperson for easyJet said: "Unfortunately we were unable to operate the EZY1821 from Manchester to Antalya yesterday due to air traffic control restrictions earlier in the day leading to the crew reaching their maximum operating hours. We are very sorry for this late cancellation.
"We always aim to minimise the impact on our customers providing them with the options to transfer to an alternative flight free of charge, or receive a refund or a voucher.”
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