WizzAir passengers were left "stranded" on a Greek island for days after the airline cancelled two return flights to Cardiff in the space of a week. Some holidaymakers had to fork out thousands on extra accommodation after being forced to extend their stay in Crete by nearly a week.
Passengers say they were given just a few hours notice that their flight back home from the island to Wales on Monday, July 11 was cancelled. Many were left with no option but to travel home via other airports including Gatwick and Birmingham as uncertainty around when the next direct flight to Cardiff would be continued.
It comes after other WizzAir passengers were denied compensation after their flight to Cardiff was diverted to Bristol and they were left on the tarmac for hours before having to make their own way home. Get the latest news from across Wales sent straight to your inbox by signing up to our newsletters.
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Having flown out to Crete with no issue on June 29, Gareth Bowen and his family were not expecting their return flight to be cancelled once, let alone twice. After happening to check their flight's status midway through their holiday, they realised they weren't going to be able to get home on Friday, July 8 as originally planned.
With the next flight back to Wales not until the following Monday, former professional rugby player Gareth, from Mountain Ash, says he had to pay hundreds of pounds for extra accommodation for him, his wife, his two children and his son's girlfriend after being forced to extend their stay by an extra three nights. During this time, he says, the only communication he had from WizzAir was an email giving them the option of securing tickets for Monday's flight.
However, the frustration didn't end there for Gareth and his fellow passengers. With their suitcases packed to head to the airport and catch their replacement flight, the family were stunned when they received a text early on Monday morning telling them that the afternoon's flight had also been cancelled.
"When we had the first cancellation, we thought, OK, it's not the end of the world, we'll just have to go back on the Monday. But this morning when we got the text, firstly it was delayed and then we got one through at 7.30am that said it was cancelled again. They sent a link through to us to rebook or get a refund and even that didn't work.
"We've been trying to get hold of someone from Wizz Air pretty much since last Wednesday, and we were unable to speak to them until this morning. We spent over 20 minutes on hold trying to get through to someone in the UK and they didn't give us any sort of idea about how we would be looked after or how we would be compensated. My wife told him that we didn't have enough money to stay another day and he said, well that's not my problem."
"It's appalling, absolutely appalling. How are they allowed to get away with treating people like this and leaving them in foreign countries? They're prepared to take your money, but not to look after you. We've had no explanation, not one, as to why we've had our flights cancelled, just an option to rebook or get 120% back in Wizz Air credits, which I think is a bit of an insult."
While Gareth understands why people back home may think he should stop complaining at having an extended break in the Greek sun, he says he is now around £2,000 out of pocket, while his sons are also worried about missing commitments back in Wales. After deciding to get a flight back to Birmingham on Tuesday, ahead of the next one to Cardiff the following day, he was also stuck with a long journey from the West Midlands back to Mountain Ash.
"My son is getting very stressed because he's training with Cardiff Rugby academy, I'm a coach with the Under 16s so I was missing some sessions with those guys as well. My youngest son was missing school, our car was stuck at Cardiff Airport and I had to pay £600 for new flights back to the UK on Tuesday. So yeah, it might seem great having another three or four days holiday, but not when you haven't planned or budgeted to be away for that long.
"It's all very frustrating. But I will be taking this up with the Civil Aviation Authority, and I've looked into compensation claims too. It's disgusting how they treat people, it's just not right."
Another passenger, Sean Glossop, was due to return from his five-day holiday in Crete on Monday afternoon but had to change his plans after WizzAir cancelled its direct Cardiff flight just a few hours before take-off. While he escaped staying for a few extra nights like Gareth and his family, he has had to fork out for alternative tickets to Gatwick Airport with British Airways.
He said: " W e had no trouble getting out to Crete with WizzAir, our flight left on time. But we had a text message at around 7am today saying our flight back was cancelled. We made it to the airport on Monday morning but there was almost no help. Myself and my friend had to book alternative tickets and I went back to Gatwick that evening.
" Some people were flying into Birmingham whilst others like myself were going to Gatwick . Another family was apparently flying to Athens to stay the night and getting a flight the next day Those who arranged to fly later on Monday were offered meal vouchers."
Sean added that passengers have had to pay out of their own pockets for the new tickets, with the airline not offering to book them on an alternative flight home. However, they have been offered a refund for the cancelled flight by the airline.
"The only communication we had was a text and an email offering to rebook the flight or a refund/Wizz credit," he said. "However, a simple check of SkyScanner showed that the next flight to Cardiff is on Wednesday. The customer service desk here run by SwissPort had a "NO INFO" sign on it with the blinds shut."
He added: "There was a check-in desk open for a short while for another WizzAir flight although we didn't try speaking to them as we had already booked our replacement flights by then and others seemed to have no luck. They did not offer to book us onto any other flights with other airlines."
It comes as Wizz Air has announced that it is cutting flights to Crete's capital Heraklion from Cardiff Airport as part of a further 5% reduction in its overall capacity. The cut is part of efforts to avoid flight cancellations and delays like these, with staff shortages at airports meaning operations are struggling to match soaring demand from holidaymakers now that Covid restrictions have been lifted.
At Cardiff Airport, where it launched a base with nine routes in April, it is reducing the number of flights to Heraklion from three days a week to two. The Friday service is being removed while flights on Mondays and Wednesdays will be maintained for its summer schedule.
Earlier this month, holidaymakers travelling on the Wizz Air flight from Corfu to Cardiff on July 3 saw their plane forced to divert to Bristol after an incident at Cardiff Airport meant they were unable to land there. The incident, which saw a light aircraft go off the end of the runway, meant the airfield was closed for nearly an hour.
Those on the Wizz Air flight - which was due to arrive back in Cardiff just after 1pm - were then forced to wait on the plane on the Bristol Airport runway for several hours, before being told they would not be flying back to Cardiff at all and had to get off the plane. Some of the "tired and upset" passengers on the flight have claimed they were declined any food or water by Wizz Air staff on-board as they waited on the runway and were given limited information about the flight's status or whether they would be flying to Cardiff as planned.
Passengers were then faced with the challenge of getting back home, with many of them having left their cars at Cardiff Airport before jetting off to Greece. This meant that families were forced to pay hundreds of pounds on taxis to take them back to Wales, having waited in vain for alternative transport to be arranged.
To make matters worse, some passengers then had their application to get compensation rejected by Wizz Air. Instead, the airline told them that the closure of the airfield in Cardiff fell under "extraordinary circumstances" and therefore no money was due to the passengers who were left on the plane for hours before having to make their own way home.
Wizz Air were approached for comment.
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