A fuming dad has slammed Jet2 after a string of flight disruptions meant his family was flown only halfway to their holiday destination before being turned around.
Mark Holling, from Edinburgh, was initially frustrated that his family had lost two days of their dream holiday in Madeira and had gotten 'trapped' in Tenerife amid the travel chaos.
But this wasn’t the end of the complications. Mark and his family, along with their fellow passengers, wound up being flown back to Edinburgh from Tenerife due to “ weather conditions in Funchal” - following more than two days of travel.
The family had been due to fly from Edinburgh to Madeira on Monday morning, but an initial delay of one day was placed on his flight, meaning it was rescheduled on Tuesday, Edinburgh Live reported.
After arriving at the airport on Tuesday morning for the flight, the passengers onboard were greeted with another issue, as the plane could not land at its destination in Madeira, Portugal, due to weather-related issues.
Instead, the flight landed in Tenerife on Tuesday afternoon and passengers are still awaiting instructions and an update on when they will eventually make it to their destination, a day later.
Mark took to Twitter to complain about the situation to Jet2, saying: "Ok it's time to take us home."
In a second tweet, Mark said: "So it’s been two and a half days since we left home and two full days of our seven day holiday spent travelling. Hardly worth trying now! Perhaps we should be given the option of flying back to Edinburgh now!"
Mark also added a photo of the amount of people on the same flight that were awaiting news.
Speaking to Edinburgh Live, he added: "On Sunday evening they told us the flight was delayed by one day. That left Tuesday morning but couldn't land in Madeira due to weather problems. After holding we were diverted to Tenerife, sat there for two and a half hours then into the airport where we queued to be allocated to hotels (and our family group was initially divided between two)
"To be fair, that was the only time we had unpleasant Jet2 staff. We left the hotel at 8am to come to the airport for 11am flight. Started boarding and some of the groups went through, goodness knows where they are now, then postponed again and awaiting update. Still waiting, quite a few folk are thinking we should give up and be taken home."
John is travelling with his wife and daughter and they only booked a week's holiday in Madeira, meaning two days have already been consumed by delays and travelling.
John also noted that his daughter is due back at university on Tuesday, so any extension to the holiday would't be a viable option.
He added: "It's more than two days lost, we should have had Monday afternoon, all of yesterday and all of today in Madeira. Even if we do try again we're unlikely to be at our hotel before it gets dark and I'm not optimistic that we'll be able to leave here today."
Jet2 have commented on the issue and given an update, saying that due to reasons that were out of their control, passengers on the flight were eventually flown back to the UK last night, on February 23.
A spokesperson said: "Due to adverse weather conditions that have been affecting Funchal and the surrounding area since Monday, flight LS735 from Edinburgh to Funchal was diverted to Tenerife Airport.
"Our teams have been working hard to arrange accommodation and refreshments for customers affected by this unforeseen delay, as well as trying everything possible to get everyone to their intended destination as soon as possible.
"Unfortunately, as weather conditions in Funchal showed no sign of improving, we made the difficult decision to fly customers back to the UK yesterday evening, and all affected customers will receive a full refund. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused by these extraordinary circumstances, which were completely beyond our control."
