A dad was left without vital heart medication after TUI axed a flight from Rhodes to Aberdeen as passengers queued to check in at the airport. We told yesterday how Scots families were left to sleep on the floor in Rhodes Airport for hours after their 10.20pm flight was scrapped without any notice on Wednesday night.
Colin Mitchell and wife Carole, both 57, were caught up in the chaos after enjoying a fortnight-long holiday in the sun. Colin, who takes medication for a heart condition, ran out of his prescription and was left scrambling to find a doctor in Rhodes.
NHS nurse Carole, and her son, also a nurse at NHS Grampian, missed shifts at hospital due to the delays.
Carole told the Record: "It put a total dampener on our holiday after having a nice break away. My husband has a leaking heart valve, aortic aneurysm, high blood pressure and tachycardia. He ran out of medication and the airline were no help at all.
"We had to try and find a doctor on Thursday morning to see if they could give him anything. Me and my son are also both nurses and were due back at work. My son was due back for a night shift on Thursday night and I was due back on Friday.
"The NHS is struggling as it is and it caused a huge problem trying to get shifts covered. We couldn't even update staff at the hospital to say when we were going to get back because we didn't know ourselves."
Exhausted pensioners and children curled up on the floor for several hours without food or water while waiting for an update for the airline. They were then shipped off to various hotels around the Greek island at around 2am before being told they would be booked on a flight to Glasgow on Thursday night.
Carole, from Aberdeen, continued: "We got to the airport at 7pm and were eventually transferred to a hotel, arriving at 3am. Our outbound flight from Aberdeen was also delayed by seven hours and that was the first bad point. The service has been horrendous.
"Nobody communicated with us. The kiosks at the airport were all closed and it took about four or five hours before TUI actually handed out water to people.
"There were elderly people and children lying sleeping on the floor and nobody seemed to know what was going on. There were folk crying while others were curled up on the floor lying on suitcases. It was just awful. We will never fly with TUI ever again."
The holidaymakers were put on a flight to Glasgow Airport at 9.20pm on Thursday night, almost 24-hours after their initial flight was due to take off. From there they were shuttled to Aberdeen on a three-hour coach journey arriving at around 5am on Friday morning.
Bonnie Keightley and two of her friends were also caught up in the delays. The student, who works part time in a nursery, said when they finally arrived at a hotel on Thursday morning the receptionist had no idea they were coming.
The 26-year-old, from Aberdeen, said: "We turned up at our replacement hotel after six hours waiting in the airport and the hotel didn't even recognise our booking. We were waiting in reception for two hours trying to sort it over the phone, then eventually TUI phoned us back and said we were moving to a different hotel.
"We didn't get there until 4am. We were sitting in the restaurant cafe this afternoon and still hadn't heard about transfers back to the airport. The lack of communication from TUI has been really frustrating.
"I was supposed to be working on Friday and my friend was supposed to have her induction day for her new job but she has had to rearrange. We just wanted to get back home."
Meanwhile cost engineer Les Swanson was left fed up by the whole situation after a relaxing fortnight on the island.
The 64-year-old said: "People were lying on concrete floors for hours with screaming kids and fed up teenagers.
"We heard nothing until midnight when we were told we were getting shipped out into various hotels in Rhodes. We eventually got to bed at 3am and at 9am we were told to get out of our room by 11am. We had not heard anything official from TUI.
"Our flight to Greece was delayed for seven hours, then it was more than 24 hours getting home.
"They offered us a £150 holiday voucher as compensation - but I hope it's transferable to Jet 2!"
A TUI spokesperson said: "We fully understand the frustration from customers due to travel back from Rhodes to Aberdeen. Unfortunately, the aircraft required additional engineering inspections which took longer than expected, and it had to remain in Rhodes overnight.
"We can confirm that this flight will now be departing for Glasgow Airport this evening. Transfers have been arranged to take customers to back to Aberdeen from Glasgow Airport. All customers were sent direct text messages with all the required information and we’d like to thank them for their patience and understanding."
