A SCOTS family have been left heartbroken after easyJet canceled their summer holiday with just hours’ notice.
Ross was due to fly from Glasgow to Enfidha in Tunisia on Thursday for a sunny holiday with his wife and two daughters.
But after waking up in the early hours of the morning to get ready for the airport, he got word that their 7.20am flight had been cancelled.
Desperate to get on holiday, the family headed to the airport to try and speak to easyJet staff at the travel hub.
A father hit out at the airline after no staff could be found and they were told to make their own holiday arrangements or “go home and wait”.
After making several calls to the airline’s call centre, the family were offered seats on the 3.20pm flight from Birmingham.
But Ross said they were told they had to make their own way into the city, which “wasn’t possible”, meaning their entire holiday was canceled as a result.
Speaking to Glasgow Live, Ross said: “It was complete chaos.”
It was heartbreaking… kids don’t get it. They stood and sobbed their hearts out. This whole process is a total disaster
Ross
But the worst part, he said, was seeing his two daughters upset after looking forward to the holiday for months.
The family booked their trip to Tunisia back in January and everyone was counting down until it was time to go.
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Ross added: “It was heartbreaking.
“The whole thing was already annoying for us, but the kids don’t understand.
“They stood and sobbed their hearts out. This whole process was an absolute disaster.”
“We will never use easyJet again.”
Ross and his wife have managed to book another holiday on flights departing tomorrow, but that means they are out nearly £5,000.
However, easyJet has only agreed to refund the cost of the hub flights – which was around £1,700 – and these will take about a week or two to process.
Until the family receives a refund confirmation from the airline, Ross cannot claim any money back through his insurance.
It was complete chaos… We will never use easyJet again
Ross
Ross and his family were just some of the many passengers whose holidays were affected after easyJet canceled a number of flights via Edinburgh and Glasgow airports on Thursday.
The flight from Glasgow to Tunisia, due to depart just after 6am, was also taxed only 65 minutes in advance.
Passengers were told by a customer service employee from an easyJet call center that the cancellation was due to thunderstorms affecting flights in the UK.
A flight from Crete to Edinburgh due to depart at 11.35pm last night was also cancelled, with crews blaming it on a “technical issue” with the plane.
Holidaymakers bound for London, Malaga and from Turkey and Greece claimed they were left stranded without accommodation.
And we previously told how a bride hit out at easyJet after the airline canceled her flight to her wedding with hours to spare.
Sarah Machete was due to fly from Edinburgh to Naples on Thursday morning for her special day this week.
EasyJet posted an explanation on its website that the cancellations were due to “air traffic management issues” that were “outside of our control”.
According to the Independent, the airline said it was affected due to different slots and times being reallocated to flights by Eurocontrol.
Eurocontrol is an international organization that works to achieve smooth air traffic control throughout Europe.
ADVICE FOR AXED FIGHTS
EASYJET has shared information on its website about what to do if your flight is cancelled. He says:
If your flight is cancelled, you have a number of options to request quickly and easily by logging into Manage Bookings here on our website or via our easyJet app:
- Free transfer to another flight.
- Choose a voucher for the full value of your booking.
- Request a refund.
Visit our Breach Help Center to learn more. Information about your rights can be found on our notice of rights page.
If your flight is canceled and the next available flight is not until the following day, we can offer you a hotel room for the night if you need it. If you’re eligible, you can request a room after you’ve transferred to a new flight in our app or in Manage Bookings.
If you require an accessible room, please contact our customer service team who will be happy to book you a room that meets your requirements.
If you are at the airport and cannot log on to the internet, our ground staff will be able to help you.
We will always try to provide overnight accommodation for customers. During times of widespread disruption, this is not always possible, so we may ask you to find your own accommodation.
If your flight has been cancelled, we will try to get you on an easyJet flight to your final destination within 24 hours of your original flight.
On the Manage Bookings page, you can search for available flights and choose which one you want to transfer to.
If there are no flights available to get you to your destination within 24 hours, you have the option to transfer to another airline, take a train, bus or rent a car to complete the journey within that time.
And a spokesman told the Independent that the network had been affected by bad weather and storms in central and south-east Europe.
As a result of the pilots maneuvering around the storms to avoid them, the flow rules were broken.
This in turn has reduced the number of aircraft that air traffic controllers can safely control at one time.
An easyJet spokesman told the Scottish Sun: “We regret that due to the impact of air traffic control restrictions caused by the adverse weather, flight EZY3171 from Glasgow to Tunisia was unable to operate on 27 June.
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“We have done everything we can to minimize the impact of the disruption, providing hotel accommodation and meals to those who need them and offering refunds or free transfer to an alternative flight to those on canceled flights.
“The safety and well-being of our customers and crew is our highest priority and although this was beyond our control, we would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused.”