A mum claims her four-year-old autistic son was forced to sleep on the airport floor after their easyJet flight was cancelled.
Lauren Kennedy and her partner Shaun were due to jet off to Antalya, Turkey, with their three children on Monday afternoon.
The family, from Bolton, Greater Manchester, had saved up and "gone all out" on a five star hotel for a birthday celebration.
But they were left with no way to get there and had to return home after their flight was cancelled amid hours of airport delays.
Lauren told the Manchester Evening News how they have received no help since their flight was cancelled.
She described the chaos when her son, who has autism, was left screaming in a crowd at the boarding gate.
"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", Lauren said.
"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 autisastic didn't deal with it very well, he was screaming in the middle of loads of people because it was just a big crowd."
The mum told how everything seemed fine after all passengers eventually boarded the plane.
But once the aircraft reached the runway, it "just sat there" with nobody knowing what was going on until news of another delay was announced over the tannoy.
"They said something about the weather while other planes were flying off. They said crews had been working too long," Lauren said.
"It was hectic, everyone was shouting. One of the pilots came out to speak to us."
The flight was initially scheduled to take off around 4.15pm.
Lauren and Shaun arrived at the airport with the children with time to spare and had special assistance through security due to their son's condition.
They went through to an airport lounge before they started to receive messages saying that the flight was delayed, Lauren said.
When they were eventually told the gate was open, they ran to it in the hope of boarding the flight and starting their holiday.
Lauren said that passengers were told to go onto the easyJet app where they could report disruption, book a hotel nearby and then change the flights.
But she said the app was not working as everybody tried to use it.
"Kids were screaming everywhere and not understanding what was going on", she said.
"There was a little boy behind us who had his headset on watching a programme, he took it off and thought he was in Turkey, it was awful."
Passengers had to stay on the plane for at least 40 minutes before they could get off and collect their luggage, according to the mum.
They were later told to speak to easyJet reps about what to do next, she explained.
Lauren said they were waiting for more than an hour to speak to anyone.
"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", she continued.
"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."
She said the next easyJet flight available to Antalya was scheduled for Saturday, so the family had to make the decision to go home.
They finally got back at around 1am.
They will now have to rebook a new holiday once they get the money back. Lauren will have to contact On the Beach about their hotel booking, as the package was booked through them.
As well as losing out on the holiday, the family also spent £170 on car hire in Turkey.
Lauren said her children have been left disappointed.
"My middle child and the youngest didn't know about the holiday until yesterday morning, it was a surprise", she said.
"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."
EasyJet apologised for the cancellation and said it was caused by 'air traffic control restrictions earlier in the day leading to the crew reaching their maximum operating hours'.
A spokesperson 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.”
