EasyJet has apologised to passengers who were left waiting hours in Faro for their night flight back to Bristol, only for it to eventually be cancelled.
BristolLive understands the airline initially delayed their 10pm flight to Bristol Airport on June 1 and then announced that it was cancelled at 2.30am. Airports and airlines have been struggling to cope following the surge in demand after the pandemic.
At Bristol Airport, passengers have been suffering long queues and delays and flights are also being cancelled. Today (Monday, June 6) travellers in arrivals have reported "nightmare" experiences at baggage reclaim.
Read the latest: 'Nightmare' as passengers report three-hour luggage waits
Among the many flights cancelled by easyJet in the past few days was the Faro to Bristol service on Wednesday night, and several passengers took to social media to voice their complaints. A dad-of-two from Stoke Bishop, who declined to be named, claimed they spent six hours waiting at the airport and that easyJet didn't arrange accommodation for them after the cancellation.
He described what happened as dreadful. The dad - who decided to book another flight with Jet2 - told Bristol Live: "We were just abandoned and then told to leave the airport. A steward told us there were 168 people on that flight.
"EasyJet told us they could try and get us on a flight at 4.30pm [that day], but that it was fully booked so it could be a couple of days. We needed to get back to Bristol."
Another passenger, Georgia, tweeted: "@easyJet literally cancelled our flight from faro to Bristol at 2:30AM! after waiting 7 hours due to delays! Communication was non existent has no clue what was happening, leaving us stranded for HOURS!"
In a statement, the airline said: “easyJet can confirm that flight EZY6010 from Faro to Bristol was delayed on June 1. The flight was rescheduled to depart at June 2, 16:30 Local time.
"We did all possible to minimise the impact of the disruption for our customers, offering hotel accommodation and meals where required. Any customers who were required to arrange their own hotel accommodation will be reimbursed.
"We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused by the overnight delay. The safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew is our highest priority.”
