Two women have been left stranded in Palma after their flight back to Manchester was scrapped that evening – leaving them without food or water for 11 hours.
Nyomi Loftus and Megan Sainsbury were due to fly home from Palma Airport on Saturday (June 18). The pair arrived early for their Jet2 flight at 11.25pm but were soon hit with delays – eventually being given an update at 3.50am.
The friends claim there had been a mix-up with the baggage which led to Jet2 “missing their slot to fly”. Nyomi, from Sale, says 70 bottles of water were then shared around 380 passengers before arrangements for hotels were made.
“The worst part was that they called out the names of 30/40 passengers and told them to go to a special spot so we could go to an adult-only hotel,” the 36-year-old said. “We had to pay for the hotel; families with babies were lying on the floor. The hotel ended up being a family hotel anyway – they could have gone.
READ MORE: Drive-bys, love rivals and gang feuds...the shootings which shocked Greater Manchester
“We were told there was a mix-up with the baggage and they had miscounted. They had to unload it off one plane before moving it and then they lost the slot to fly as the staff needed a rest. No one could get any detail from anyone.”
Nyomi and Megan were forced to pay for a taxi to their hotel 40 minutes away from the airport, costing them €65. The pair hope to fly back to Manchester at 11.35pm on Sunday (June 19) - but fear the flight may not go ahead as planned.
“There was a little girl sat near us in the airport who was being sick because she was crying so much,” Nyomi continued. People were just walking around trying to find out what was going on. It was left it absolute uproar – it was a bit of a disaster.
“We are currently sat on a coach heading back to the airport but we still don’t know what time the flight is or if there is even a flight confirmed. The first food and drink was provided at the hotel at 7.30am - eight hours after our flight was due to depart and 11 hours after we arrived at the airport.
“We are both due to start new jobs on Monday. I have been told by my new job that if I miss my start date tomorrow, I will have to join the next intake which means I will have no job for four to five weeks.”
Passengers say they were told the flight was cancelled, but Jet2 have insisted the plane was instead delayed. Passengers were eventually flown home nearly 24 hours later.
In a statement, a spokesman for Jet2 said: “We would like to apologise once again to customers affected by this delay. Our teams have worked tirelessly to look after everyone, however unfortunately there was a shortage of accommodation in Majorca yesterday evening. We advised customers immediately via text that we would reimburse anyone that needed to book hotels separately and we have done everything we can to look after everyone. All remaining customers are being flown home this evening.”
Read more of today's top stories here
READ NEXT:
