A bride-to-be has been left "broken" after flight cancellations forced her to call off her wedding at the last minute. Seren Rounds has had to cancel her ceremony on June 2 after the flight she was due to travel to Cyprus on was cancelled on Saturday.
Ms Rounds and her fiancé Adam Howells were due to leave for Paphos with her step-father Kevin Trenchard, 55, from Caerleon, Newport on Saturday, May 28 from Bristol Airport. Mr Trenchard told Bristol Live the wedding party of 34 arrived four hours before they were due to depart as they were aware of some of the airport's challenges during the busy season.
He praised the speed at which they got through check-in, at which point their flight at 1.35pm was showing as on time on the flight board. However, delays began to show after they got past security and the wedding party began fearing the worst.
Mr Trenchard said: "They called us down to the gate to give us the bad news, which at that stage was that the flight had been delayed until 10.30pm Sunday (May 29) evening." To find out what to do if your flight gets cancelled click here.
The airport staff initially said they could only find 13 hotel rooms to accommodate passengers affected by the flight change, at which point some of the wedding party with young children left for a hotel in Bristol. But then the situation took another turn. He explained: "They then made the announcement that the flight has been cancelled and that we'd all get a refund."
When approached about the cancellations, a spokesperson for TUI said: "We would like to apologise for the inconvenience to our customers on flight BY 6676 from Bristol to Paphos, on Saturday, May 28 who were delayed to a combination of factors causing significant operational disruption.
"Unfortunately, we felt the impact to customers' holiday was too great and took the difficult decision to cancel the flight. We contacted affected customers as soon as we became aware of the change and all customers will receive a full refund within 14 days. We understand how disappointing and frustrating this is and we do apologise for any inconvenience caused."
Passengers have been offered £200 vouchers along with a full refund and a £350 compensation sum per person by the airline.
"She was obviously broken yesterday and they're actually in Tui in Newport trying to sort something else out but it doesn't look like it's going to happen," Mr Trenchard added.
Eleven people in the wedding party had already flown out to Paphos a few days earlier but the bride and groom have not been able to find any way to join them. After looking at their options the family realised there was no way they could rebook 34 people in the party on flights in time for the wedding on June 2. Mr Trenchard also explained that the hotel due to host the nuptials has lost two weddings due to flight cancellations.
He said his step-daughter had been planning the wedding meticulously for the past three years. "Because she's a school teacher we are limited to the available slots we can get away," he said.
"She may still get married later this year but if we do that it might have to be somewhere like Vegas where we can just go and get it done without any big planning. If you want to get married [in the UK] it takes ages to find an available slot."
