Three friends from Swansea were left stranded in Turkey with no money for four days after their easyJet flight home was cancelled. Justine Williams, Debbie Davies and Steve Wilson had been on holiday in Marmaris and arrived at Dalaman Airport on Saturday, August 22, expecting to fly back to Bristol Airport.
The group, who had travelled out on Saturday, August 15, reached the boarding gate and could see their aircraft through the terminal windows. However, they never boarded the flight, receiving little information about what had happened. They were directed onto coaches and taken to a hotel that accommodates stranded passengers, with no clarification given about the cancellation.
Aircraft issue led to cancellation
EasyJet has since confirmed the cancellation was caused by an aircraft problem that required an engineering inspection. By the time the cancellation occurred, the friends had spent all their money during the holiday and were given little information about when a replacement flight would be arranged.
Four days passed before the group could return to the UK, eventually flying to Manchester Airport - around 200 miles from their intended destination. Miss Williams described the experience, saying: "Our holiday had finished, and we'd gone to the airport, and everything was fine until we got to the gate. The time our flight was due came (11.30pm), and we were looking at the plane, and they were saying 'another five minutes, another five minutes', but it didn't say delayed or anything on the screen."
No money and little support
Miss Williams said the group was taken to a hotel in the early hours, arriving around 4.30am, with no explanation given. Breakfast and evening meals were provided, but the friends had no money to buy basic items such as deodorant, toothpaste and toothbrushes, and had to borrow from other guests.
"People at the hotel have been lending us everything. I've never shared a roll-on deodorant in my life, but I had to," Miss Williams said. The group said they were told, via an automated service on the easyJet website, that they were responsible for booking their own alternative flights.
Return to Manchester
Mr Wilson travelled home alone on a flight to Manchester on Wednesday, with his car still parked at Bristol Airport. Miss Williams and Miss Davies were due to fly to Manchester on Wednesday evening, arriving at 1.05am, with no onward travel arranged. The app indicated the alternative was a flight not departing until September 7.
Speaking on Wednesday evening, Miss Williams said: "We're on our way to the airport, but we're not hopeful we'll get on it because flights have been cancelled again since. If we do manage to get on the flight, we have no way of getting back from Manchester. We're two ladies, arriving into Manchester at 1.05am, and we haven't got a penny on us."
She added: "Not being home on time has meant I've lost work, and it has been really, really inconvenient. Everyone has all been left in a mess. We'd like easyJet to apologise. I'd never ever use them again. They don't even know if we've got home or not - nobody has come to talk to us. We sat there crying thinking we were never going to get home, stuck in a foreign country with no money."
EasyJet response
An easyJet spokeswoman said: "We are sorry that EZY2852 from Dalaman to Bristol on August 22 was unable to operate due to an issue with the aircraft which required an engineering inspection.
"The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is our highest priority and we have been doing all we can to support our customers, including providing hotel accommodation and meals and reimbursing them for expenses they may have incurred.
"Alternative flight options including with other airlines are very limited at this busy time of year and so while we have transferred customers onto the next available flights this week, we fully understand the difficulty caused by the delay returning home and are sorry for the inconvenience caused."
