Family stranded in Turkey after flight cancelled spend £2,500 getting home

Summertime is meant to be a prime period for families to jet off to destinations far and wide and have the time of their lives.

But airports across the UK have been plagued with chaos in recent weeks as staffing levels failed to keep up with the surge in travellers.

One family from Oldham, Greater Manchester, had to fork out £2,500 for new flights and hotels after finding themselves stuck in Turkey.

Michael Tiernet and his family flew to Antalya from Manchester Airport 14 days ago and were due to fly back late on May 31.

But they arrived to find their EasyJet flight back to Manchester had been cancelled, leaving them with no way of getting home.

The stress of the situation caused his nine-month-old son Ralphie faint because he was crying so much.

Michael’s brother was miraculously able to buy tickets home to Manchester Airport in the end but the rebooking of flights and the extra three days in Antalya cost the family £2,500.

They have now returned home but they have all been left feeling shocked with considerably less money in their pockets.

EasyJet did offer the family flights back to London but they would have all had to take separate flights.

Speaking from home in 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 offered were flights the next day from Dalaman which is miles away.

‘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.’

Video footage has emerged from airports like Manchester showing hundreds of bags left by passengers because of the delays as well as passengers climbing through baggage carousels to retrieve their bags.

An easyJet spokesman said: ‘We are very sorry that flight EZY1822 from Antalya to Manchester on May 31 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.’

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