Passengers have described their "nightmare" with trying to get home to Ireland after Aer Lingus cancelled over a dozen flights on Sunday.
The airline said Air Traffic Control strikes, a spike in Covid-19 cases among staff and ongoing issues at airports caused the cancellations. They have since apologised to passengers and said they "sought to re-accommodate disrupted passengers on the next available alternative service".
Customers have said they faced confusion following the cancellations regarding when they will be rebooked onto another flight and if expenses will be covered.
Read more: Aer Lingus apologises after cancelled flights causes major disruption to and from Dublin Airport
Passenger Ciara Edwards was scheduled to fly from Gatwick to Dublin but got a text on the way to the airport to say that the flight was cancelled. Speaking to Dublin Live, she described the experience as a "complete nightmare".
She said: "(Check-in staff) asked all the passengers who were on our cancelled flight to wait and they will sort out accommodation, we were standing around for four hours.
"Half of us were put on a 9:30pm flight tonight to fly out and the rest were put on a Tuesday morning flight. It was a joke. We’d miss two days of work. They said the 8am flight this morning was full along with all earlier flights today, I’ve never seen anything as bad in my life."
Ciara ended up organising to get the ferry back to Ireland as she was worried the flights for tonight and tomorrow morning would also be cancelled.
"After five hours of waiting we gave up and hired a car from Europcar in Gatwick, we had to drive to Swansea last night stay in a travel lodge and then drive to Fishguard today, we’re getting the 1pm ferry to Rosslare.
"It was an absolute nightmare, Aer Lingus weren’t answering the phones either, I’ve never seen anything that bad. They just abandoned us all.
"I’m still unsure what happened the rest of the guys waiting there. It’s costing us a fortune but we had to be back for work. Never again."
Ciara will now have to drive from Rosslare back to Dublin Airport to collect her car.
"We went for the ferry because Gatwick couldn’t guarantee we would even make the Monday night and Tuesday morning flights, it was too much of a risk.
"We thought maybe fly from Heathrow but it was over €400 for flights today and flights from Heathrow were cancelled too and we weren’t guaranteed to get the money back for any flights we booked ourselves. Ryanair were sold out."
Mum-of-two Claire was also caught up in yesterday's disruption. After spending a weekend at Legoland with her children, her flight from Heathrow to Dublin was cancelled 12 hours before it was scheduled to take off.
The earliest flight they could be rebooked on is tomorrow morning so the family had to book a hotel for two nights. An Aer Lingus customer service agent told her over text that "with regards to hotel and taxi expenses, we cannot guarantee that they are eligible for compensation".
Claire told Dublin Live that she faced major difficulty trying to get through to customer service. She said: "I went onto the phone, the first time was an hour and a half and the phone just cut off. No one answered.
"The second time, I rang again. I was on hold for four hours. I actually went to breakfast here in the hotel with an Airpod in so I could stay on the phone.
"I'm supposed to be at work today and my child is supposed to be in school. If you had no money you'd be absolutely screwed."
Claire said she didn't get confirmation of what flight she was rebooked on until early this morning. She said: "I rang them at 7am and within two minutes somebody answered. She told me I was on a flight at 1:25pm tomorrow."
An Aer Lingus spokeswoman told Dublin Live: “As per Regulation (EC) 261/2004, in the case of flight cancellations, when the expected time of departure of the new flight is at least the day after the planned departure for the cancelled flight, Aer Lingus will seek to provide hotel accommodation where required or cover such costs along with other reasonable expenses including meals and refreshments.”
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