A furious bride-to-be had her easyJet flight to Italy for her wedding cancelled at the last-minute as she was one of thousands caught up in air traffic control chaos.
Sarah Machete, 41, from Dundee, was excited as she planned to travel from Edinburgh Airport to Naples on a 6am flight yesterday morning for her big day.
But just as she was about to leave for the airport, easyJet told her the flight was cancelled – and her only option was another flight two days later on Saturday.
It came as easyJet cancelled a raft of flights at short notice, leaving families’ holiday plans in disarray. Passengers reported being sent back home as flights were axed, sending their travel plans in turmoil – with others left stranded abroad.
Holidaymakers complained at the lack of available information, while others reported being sat for hours on planes that never even left the ground. The airline said that ATC restrictions caused by poor weather had led to disruption on its network.
Miss Machete claimed the easyJet customer service team gave ‘zero s***s’ about her situation, but she eventually reorganised her trip to fly to London Luton last night, stayed in a hotel and then got a new 6.15am flight from Luton to Naples today.
She also said that despite easyJet confirming a booking for a hotel in Luton last night, the airline then sent her an email to say that was also cancelled.
Her new flight departed just before 7am this morning, but Miss Machete complained that she had lost 24 hours of her trip lost, a night at a villa she had booked and ‘lots of stress at a time we don’t need it due to the incompetence of easyJet’.
Sarah Machete, 41, was excited as she planned to travel from Edinburgh Airport to Naples on a 6am flight yesterday morning for her wedding. But it was cancelled at the last-minute
Miss Machete’s flight from Edinburgh to Naples was among 18 easyJet departures or arrivals cancelled at the airport yesterday, as well as three at Glasgow Airport.
More than 20 easyJet flights cancelled at Glasgow and Edinburgh airports yesterday
Glasgow Airport (x3)
Departures (x2)
7.20am to Enfidha4.55pm to Malaga
Arrivals (x1)
Edinburgh Airport (x18)
Departures (x8)
6am to Naples7am to Birmingham10.25am to Stansted1.35pm to Gatwick2pm to Kefalonia3.25pm to Stansted4.35pm to Dubrovnik9.15pm to Amsterdam
Arrivals (x10)
1.25am from Bodrum2.15am from Heraklion9.50am from Birmingham1.20pm from Naples1.50pm from Stansted5.25pm from Gatwick6.35pm from Stansted8.40pm from Amsterdam11.10pm from Kefalonia11.50pm from Dubrovnik
Other flights axed from Edinburgh yesterday included those to Kefalonia, Dubrovnik and Amsterdam as well as domestic routes to London Stansted, Gatwick and Birmingham.
Inbound flights from all those destinations as well as Naples were also axed at Edinburgh, as well as services from Bodrum and Heraklion.
The three flights affected at Glasgow were an arrival and departure for Enfidha-Hamamet, and a service to Malaga.
In a series of tweets, Ms Machete initially said just after midnight yesterday: ‘Sitting waiting up to head to the airport for my 6am flight to Italy! It’s wedding time!’
But at 8.30am she wrote: ‘So…was just about to leave for the airport for our flight to Naples for our wedding and got a message from easyJet to say our flight has been cancelled. easyJet response…. Your only option is the flight on Saturday! Zero s***s given by their customer service.’
And at 9am she added: ‘Now have to take a flight tonight to Luton and get the 6am flight to Naples tomorrow morning.
‘A whole 24 hours of my trip lost, an entire night of the villa wasted and lots of stress at a time we don’t need it due to the incompetence of easyJet. No confidence it won’t happen again!’
Then at 10.30pm, Miss Machete wrote: ‘And despite easyJet confirming a booking for the hotel in Luton tonight, they’ve now sent an email to say it’s cancelled! easyJet, explain this!’
Another man due to have been on the same flight as Miss Machete from Edinburgh to Naples said that two days of his holiday had been struck off because of the last-minute cancellation.
The passenger called Ian tweeted yesterday morning: ‘EasyJet have cancelled our flight from Edinburgh to Naples and rebooked us so we lose nearly two days of our holiday. Why are we not booked on another airline to get us to Naples today?’
And Guy Houston arrived at 5am with his family at Glasgow Airport for a package getaway to Tunisia, only to be advised that their flight wasn’t going just 65 minutes before departure time.
EasyJet passengers were stranded at Lanzarote Airport amid disruption yesterday evening
He told the Daily Record that the family had been informed that the flight was cancelled due to storms, and that there were no easyJet staff to help.
Elsewhere, a passenger called Kate complained she had been stuck at Bristol Airport for seven hours, leaving her Turkish holiday ‘down the pan’, after she was forced to swap sun in Dalaman for a drive to Cornwall.
She told MailOnline that passengers had boarded the aircraft where they waited an hour on the Tarmac before they were told their flight was cancelled.
”Apparently three flights to Dalaman have been cancelled this week’, she said. ‘There were rumours it was a staff problem but they must have known hours before. The flight was already late.
‘The crew had boarded at 4pm and they waited until 5.10pm to cancel. The systems are broken.’
Instead of being able to soak up the sun in Dalaman, Kate is now driving to Cornwall for her holiday.
EasyJet said it had done ‘all possible’ to minimise the impact of the disruption on passengers
She added: ‘I’m sure all the Turkish lira we bought will gain value. It’s a scam. All you really want is fairness, clear communication and human interaction.’
At Liverpool Airport, John Done was with his partner at the terminal for five hours when they were told at the gate that their flight to Cyprus had been cancelled. The couple lost three nights of their all-inclusive holiday.
He said: ‘Myself and partner were at Liverpool Airport for five hours today to be told at gate cancelled with no notice or explanation. I had to book with Jet2 for Sunday and reschedule hire car we were picking up. It’s disgusting.’
At Manchester Airport, Bev and Wayne Holland were told their flight to Malaga had been delayed five hours, only to be then told it was cancelled and to be given just £3 in meal vouchers.
They said: ‘Our flight was due to leave at 5pm and this morning we received a message to tell us the flight had an hour delay, that soon increased to 5 hours, however clearly instructed us to still check in as normal.
Flights from Glasgow and Edinburgh airports were cancelled at short notice by the airline
‘Once in the lounge we settled for a hefty delay, the flight was scheduled for 22:00. About 4:30 we saw the flight was showing on screen as cancelled.
‘EasyJet say this was out of their control. The fact they knew this morning that flight was delayed how can that be out of their control.’
The chaos has also left people stranded overseas after return flights were stripped from the schedule.
Tracey Thomas told MailOnline her daughter’s birthday trip to Rhodes had ended in disaster after she and her friends were told their flight back to Luton had been pulled three hours after it was meant to depart.
She said they were now stuck at Rhodes airport at 1am because the crew had gone over time.
Emma Ford and her partner Paul said their holiday in Lanzarote had been ‘tainted’ after they and Paul’s mother were left stranded for five days on the Canary island.
Their original flight home on Sunday was cancelled following a power cut at Manchester Airport.
They were offered an alternative flight to Liverpool on Wednesday evening after forking out funds for accommodation, only for airline to axe the replacement flight as well. They are still waiting for the airline to rebook them on another flight.
Ms Ford told MailOnline: ‘We feel like we’re in groundhog day. We go to the airport and the same thing keeps happening. Tonight they have given us no information on the phone. All we get told, it’s like it’s their catchphrase, is ‘wait for an email’.’
EasyJet said it had done ‘all possible’ to minimise the impact of the disruption on passengers which it said was due to air traffic control restrictions.
A spokesman said: ‘We are sorry that the impact of ATC restrictions across the network yesterday, caused by adverse weather, meant that some aircraft were out of position this morning and as a result some flights to and from Edinburgh and Glasgow were unable to operate.
‘We did all possible to minimise the impact on our customers and provided those on cancelled flights with options to rebook or receive a refund, as well as hotel accommodation and meals where required.
‘The safety and wellbeing of customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority and we would like to apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused as a result of the weather.’
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