Three holidaymakers from Swansea who were left stranded in Turkey after their easyJet flight was cancelled finally returned to the UK at Manchester Airport, 200 miles from where they were due to land. Justine Williams, Debbie Davies and Steve Wilson had been enjoying their time in Marmaris and arrived at Dalaman Airport on Saturday, August 22, ready to fly back to Bristol Airport.
Flight delays and confusion at Dalaman Airport
The friends, whose holiday had started the previous Saturday, August 15, reached the point of boarding and could see their aircraft through terminal windows. However, the scheduled departure time passed without take-off, with Miss Williams noting that little information was given for the delays.
The holidaymakers, who had arranged their flights and accommodation independently rather than through a package holiday, claim they were directed onto coaches and transported to a hotel which "puts up people when they are stranded", receiving no clarification regarding the cancellation. EasyJet has since said the issue stemmed from an aircraft problem requiring an engineering inspection.
'Nobody knew what was happening'
Miss Williams said: "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."
"Everybody was getting worked up and it was a bit of a nightmare really because nobody knew what was going on. After a while they said 'everybody follow us to passport control'. We asked 'what's happening?' but nobody knew."
"We were asked to get our bags and were asked to follow to the car park. It was pitch black in the middle of the night, in the early hours of the morning. Everybody was put on different mini buses and nobody knew where they were going, and nobody had anything explained to them as nobody spoke Turkish."
"We were put into hotels, arriving at around 4.30am at that point, and it could have been up a mountain for all I knew, it was pitch black. It was a total nightmare."
No money and borrowed essentials
Breakfast and evening meals were provided for the group at the hotel, but they had spent all the money they had during the course of their holiday, meaning they had to rely on borrowing basic products from others staying at the hotel to get by.
Miss Williams said: "We haven't had any money at all on us as we spent it all on the holiday. We've had no money to buy things like deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, because we left it all before we went to the airport."
"People at the hotel have been lending us everything. I've never shared a roll-on deodorant in my life, but I had to. We asked at the hotel we were taken to if we could speak to easyJet, but the reception wasn't able to help."
Return to Manchester Airport
The group say they were told, via an automated service on the easyJet website, that they were responsible for booking their own alternative flights. Mr Wilson travelled back home alone on a flight to Manchester on Wednesday, with his car still parked at Bristol Airport.
Miss Williams and Miss Davies were also due to travel home on Wednesday evening, also Manchester Airport bound, and if their flight takes place, would have seen them arrive in the northern city at 1.05am in the morning, with no onward travel lined up.
The app stated that the alternative to accepting the flight to Manchester was another flight which is not due to depart until September 7, they 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," Miss Williams said.
"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."
"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."
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."
