A teenager from Wales and his partner are stuck in Cyprus after a dream holiday turned into a nightmare when their flight back to Cardiff was cancelled at the last minute - leaving them stranded and out of pocket.
Rhys Evans, 18, from Merthyr Tydfil, and his partner Millie, had enjoyed a week in the sun in Cyprus and were due to fly home on Sunday. At least, that’s what they thought.
When they arrived at Larnaca International Airport they were met with large queues. Then, to their dismay, word began to spread that their flight home had been cancelled. You can get the latest WalesOnline newsletters e-mailed to you directly for free by signing up here.
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With no alternative flights available, they said were shipped off to a hotel. That, at least, was paid for by Wizz Air, the Hungarian airline they had booked their flights with. However, that courtesy ran out after one night, the couple claim, and they remain in Cyprus. They were even warned they might be stuck there for a second week before the airline could offer them a direct flight to Cardiff.
“We were due to fly back to Cardiff last night (Monday) but when we got to the airport there was a huge queue, and someone had been sent an e-mail to say the flight had been cancelled," said Rhys. "We were put on a coach to take us to a hotel, but were dropped off about 10 minutes away and told we had to walk the rest of the way.
“We managed to check in but were then told that the airline had only put us up for one night, despite the fact they couldn’t fly us home until Thursday, which would be to Gatwick, or we could wait until Sunday to get a direct flight to Cardiff. We’ve been kicked out of the hotel now and we’ve had to book our own and we have to pay for food and everything ourselves. We’ve also managed to find a flight from Pathos, which is about an hour and a half away, to Cardiff which takes off on Wednesday, which we’ve again had to pay for ourselves.
“Wizz Air cancelled the flight and apart from the one night in a hotel we haven’t had anything. We haven’t been given a reason, they just said it was cancelled. We haven’t even had an e-mail, but others we’ve spoken to have, and the talk is that it was to do with the incident in Cardiff over the weekend.”
The incident Ryan referred to saw disruption at Cardiff Airport on Sunday after a light aircraft went off the runway, resulting in the closure of the airfield and the diversion of a Wizz Air flight to Bristol. You can read more about the incident here.
Rhys was due to start an apprenticeship back home in Wales on Tuesday, something he's thankfully been able to rearrange due to his travel woes. But he and his partner have been hit in the pocket by having to fork out for their own hotel, food and transport in Cyprus. They’re effectively having to foot the bill for a second week’s holiday when they only planned to be abroad for one. It’s possible that they will be able to recoup some of the costs, but Rhys is not holding his breath.
“We’ve made friends with a family out here and they’ve already been here for 12 days as the same thing has happened to them," he said. "We’ve been given a piece of paper with details of how we go about getting some compensation, but it says on it that if the cancellation wasn’t their fault then there’s nothing they can do. We can’t get any sense out of Wizz Air.”
Wizz Air has been asked to comment.
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