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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Sean McPolin

EasyJet 'abandons' passengers as crying children forced to sleep on airport floor

Children were forced to sleep on the floor for hours after having their return flight to the UK delayed.

Youngsters were left crying and without food or water for seven hours as they waited to return to Liverpool John Lennon Airport from Turkey.

One passenger explained how on Wednesday evening large groups were waiting to return to the country from Izmir, Turkey.

Claire, from Croxheath, was returning from holiday with her dad and said dozens of people were waiting on an update from easyJet, which didn't come for hours, the ECHO reports.

She said they were "abandoned at the last minute" by easyJet as children lay asleep on luggage and received no update following the delay of the evening flight.

Children were in tears after waiting seven hours at a Turkish airport (Liverpool Echo)

The 32-year-old also said passengers who had wheelchairs and needed were left stranded by a chaperone, with other passengers stepping in to help.

The annoyed holidaymaker fumed over about the "non-existent communication" and said her partner knew more about the delays from looking at easyJet's flight tracker app while at the departure gate.

An easyJet spokesman admitted the airline was not operation at the standard of support expected for passengers.

Claire explained she arrived at the airport for her evening flight on July 27, but waited at the departure gate for an hour before being told by text message her flight was delayed.

She said: "None of the staff knew what was happening or gave us any information. Children were falling asleep on the floor laid on their cases. There were people using wheelchairs just left.

"One lady had a chaperone who left her so we ended up taking her under our wing and pushing her around. We were moved to a different gate at one point. There was no system to it all and the organisation was awful.

"The airport was so hot, we didn't get offered any food or water and everything in the airport was so expensive - there was nothing available to us. Children were crying and no one was telling us anything."

Claire said eventually people were ferried to a hotel at around 3am before returning to the airport hours later.

The woman's new flight landed at Liverpool John Lennon Airport at 6pm on July 28, around 24 hours after she was meant to have left Turkey.

"The crew coming back were really nice but other than that the communication was non-existent," she added.

EasyJet said it didn't provide the normal left of support it would to customers (AFP via Getty Images)

"People were stressed and worried. It was a massive relief to land back in Liverpool - I'm not one to clap the pilot when landing but it felt so good to arrive back. I'm not even back to work yet and I'm exhausted. I don't think I'll be using easyJet again."

A spokesman for easyJet said: “We’re very sorry for the overnight delay to the passenger's flight from Izmir to Liverpool due to a technical issue with the aircraft scheduled to operate the flight.

"The safety and wellbeing of our customers is our highest priority and we did all possible to minimise the impact of the delay for customers and arranged hotel accommodation, transfers and meals.

“We are sorry that the passenger felt let down by her experience in the airport and so we are looking into this with the airport and our partners at Izmir, as this is not the standard of support we expect for our customers.

“We are contacting the passenger to apologise for her experience and provide any further assistance she may need.”

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