A furious bride-to-be had her easyJet flight to Italy for her wedding canceled at the last minute as she was one of thousands caught in the chaos of air traffic control.
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 he was about to leave for the airport, EasyJet informed him that the flight had been canceled and his only option was another flight two days later, on Saturday.
It came as easyJet cancelled a number of flights at short notice, throwing families’ holiday plans into disarray. Passengers reported being sent back home when flights were cancelled, disrupting their travel plans and others being stranded abroad.
Holidaymakers complained about a lack of information available, while others reported sitting for hours on planes that never even took off. The airline said air traffic control restrictions caused by bad weather had led to disruptions to its network.
Miss Machete claimed EasyJet’s customer services team didn’t give a “shit” about her situation but eventually rearranged her trip to fly to London Luton last night, stayed in a hotel and then took a new flight at 6.15am. am from Luton to Naples today.
He also said that although easyJet confirmed a booking for a hotel in Luton last night, the airline sent him an email to inform him it was also cancelled.
Her new flight left shortly before 7am today but Miss Machete complained she had lost 24 hours of her journey, a night in a villa she had booked and “a lot of stress at a time when we don’t need it because of easyJet’s incompetence”.
Sarah Machete, 41, was excited because she was planning to travel from Edinburgh Airport to Naples on a 6am flight yesterday morning for her wedding. But it was canceled at the last minute.
Miss Machete’s flight from Edinburgh to Naples was among 18 EasyJet departures or arrivals canceled at the airport yesterday, as well as three at Glasgow Airport.
Other flights removed from Edinburgh yesterday included those to Kefalonia, Dubrovnik and Amsterdam, as well as domestic routes to London, Stansted, Gatwick and Birmingham.
Flights from all these destinations, as well as Naples, and services from Bodrum and Heraklion have also been cancelled in Edinburgh.
The three flights affected in Glasgow were an arrival and departure to Enfidha-Hamamet, and a service to Malaga.
In a series of tweets, Ms Machete initially said shortly after midnight yesterday: ‘Sitting waiting to go to the airport for my 6am flight to Italy! Time to get married!’
But at 8.30am she wrote: ‘So… I was just about to leave for the airport for our flight to Naples for our wedding and I got a message from EasyJet saying our flight had been cancelled. EasyJet’s response… Your only option is the Saturday flight! Your customer service didn’t say a damn thing.’
And at 9am he added: “Now I have to catch a flight tonight to Luton and tomorrow morning take the 6am flight to Naples.”
‘I lost a whole 24 hours of my trip, wasted an entire night in the villa and a lot of stress at a time when we didn’t need it due to easyJet’s incompetence. There’s no confidence it won’t happen again!’
Then at 10.30pm Miss Machete wrote: ‘And even though easyJet confirmed a booking for the hotel in Luton tonight, they have now emailed to say it has been cancelled! EasyJet, explain this to us!’
Another man who was due to travel on the same flight as Miss Machete from Edinburgh to Naples said two days of his holiday had been canceled due to last minute cancellation.
The passenger named Ian tweeted yesterday morning: ‘EasyJet cancelled our flight from Edinburgh to Naples and rebooked us, so we lost almost two days of our holiday. Why don’t we have another flight booked to take us to Naples today?
And Guy Houston arrived at Glasgow Airport at 5am with his family for a package break to Tunisia, only to be told their flight was not leaving just 65 minutes before departure time.
EasyJet passengers were stranded at Lanzarote airport amid disruptions yesterday afternoon
He told the Daily Record the family had been informed the flight was cancelled due to storms and there were no EasyJet staff to help.
Elsewhere, a passenger named Kate complained she had been stuck in Bristol Airport for seven hours, leaving her holiday in Turkey “in the dust”, after she was forced to swap the sunshine in Dalaman for a trip to Cornwall.
She told MailOnline that passengers had boarded the plane where they waited for an hour on the tarmac before being told their flight had been cancelled.
“Apparently three flights to Dalaman were canceled this week,” he said. “There were rumors that it was a staff problem, but they must have known about it hours before. The flight was already delayed.”
“The crew had boarded at 16:00 and waited until 17:10 to cancel. The systems are out of order.”
Instead of being able to sunbathe in Dalaman, Kate now drives to Cornwall for her holiday.
EasyJet said it had done “everything possible” to minimize the impact of the disruption on passengers.
She added: “I am sure that all the Turkish lira we buy will appreciate in value. It is a scam. All they want is justice, clear communication and human interaction.”
At Liverpool Airport, John Done was with his partner in 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 vacation.
She said: ‘My partner and I spent five hours at Liverpool Airport today and were told at the gate that the flight had been cancelled without warning or explanation. I had to rebook with Jet2 for Sunday and reschedule the car hire we were due to pick up. It’s disgusting.’
At Manchester Airport, Bev and Wayne Holland were told their flight to Malaga had been delayed by five hours, but were then told it had been cancelled and given just £3 worth of food vouchers.
They said: ‘Our flight was due to leave at 5pm and this morning we received a message to inform us that the flight was delayed by an hour, which soon increased to 5 hours, however we were clearly told to still check in as normal .
Flights from Glasgow and Edinburgh airports were cancelled at short notice by the airline
‘Once in the room we had to put up with a long delay, the flight was scheduled for 10:00 p.m. Around 4:30 we saw the flight appear on the screen as cancelled.
EasyJet says this was out of its control. The fact that they found out this morning that the flight was delayed, how can that be out of their control?
The chaos has also left people stranded abroad after return flights were removed from the schedule.
Tracey Thomas told MailOnline that her daughter’s birthday trip to Rhodes had ended in disaster after she and her friends were told their return flight to Luton had been cancelled three hours after departure.
He said they were now stuck at Rhodes airport at 1am because the crew had overstayed their welcome.
Emma Ford and her partner Paul said their holiday in Lanzarote had been “marred” after they and Paul’s mother were stranded for five days on the Canary island.
Their original flight home on Sunday was canceled due to a power outage at Manchester Airport.
They were offered an alternative flight to Liverpool on Wednesday night after shelling out funds for accommodation, but the airline also canceled the replacement flight. 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. We haven’t been given any information over the phone tonight. All they tell us, it’s like their motto, is ‘wait for an email’.”
EasyJet said it had done “everything possible” to minimize the impact of the disruption on passengers which it said was due to air traffic control restrictions.
A spokesman said: ‘We regret that the impact of ATC restrictions across the network yesterday, caused by adverse weather, has 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 everything we could 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 necessary.
‘The safety and wellbeing of customers and crew is easyJet’s top priority and we would like to apologise to customers for any inconvenience caused as a result of the weather.’
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