EasyJet cancellations leaves dad out-of-pocket and in dash to daughter's wedding
A family has been devastated after easyJet cancelled their flight "at the last minute" - leaving them "stressed" ahead of a dream wedding.
Ian Bell, from Edinburgh, Scotland, said his daughter Stephanie and over 100 of her guests were told just after midnight that their plane would not be taking off. Stephanie is planning to get married in Naples on Monday and now faces a race against time to make it to her own wedding.
Her father said they have all been left out of pocket following the catastrophe and said Stephanie has been "upset and stressed about the whole thing." The group joined dozens of other passengers who were hit with abrupt cancellations by the airline due to traffic control issues this week.
Have you been affected by the cancellations? Contact [email protected]
Dozens of passengers have been hit with delays to their holidays
Ian said: "We're so frustrated and annoyed. My daughter Stephanie is getting married in Italy on Monday. There's about 110 of us going from Edinburgh, and at the last minute we got an email from easyJet on Thursday morning at about 12.30am to say the flight was cancelled. You can imagine the stress this has caused."
The father and his family checked their luggage in on Wednesday night, and when they went to retrieve it on Thursday morning they were told by staff that seven other easyJet flights were cancelled, reports Edinburgh Live.
He added: "Me and my wife, the bride's auntie and uncle and niece were all heading out on the flight along with some friends. Stephanie went out on Tuesday. She's pretty upset and stressed about the whole thing.
EasyJet has issued an apology following the mass cancellation
"We managed to get flights with Jet2 from Glasgow on Friday, but it's costing us about £200 for a taxi to the airport. The car hire at Naples won't refund me because I didn't cancel within 48 hours. We're also forking out for a night at the hotel that we didn't use. It's proven to be quite an expensive problem."
Ian and his family said they're "terrified" ahead of Friday's flight, and concerned about other wedding guests that are flying out to Naples on Sunday. "If it was just a holiday, I might say okay and just suck it up," he said. "But it's a wedding. We've got friends coming out from Jacksonville, Florida, and they seem to be having an easier time getting to the wedding than us.
"EasyJet have said we can get a refund for the cancelled flights, and I can keep any receipts. It just isn't the experience that we wanted. We're terrified about the upcoming flights."
It comes after easyJet passengers slammed the airline as they shared similar experiences following the spate of cancellations. Another traveller said he was due to fly to Tunisia with his wife and daughter for a vacation but explained the flight was cancelled 65 minutes before it was due to take off at Glasgow Airport.
EasyJet passengers said they received a cancellation text
Guy Houston previously said: "We arrived at Glasgow Airport at 5am and there were passengers standing around. The airport staff were telling us to check the easyJet app and no one would speak to us. There were no easyJet employees there to help.
"By the time we arrived home, I received an email to say they couldn't provide another flight within the next two days so the entire holiday was cancelled. It's the first day of the school summer holidays and this is what families face. It's terrible. I feel like they have just washed their hands of us."
A spokesperson for the airline said the cancellations were the result of Europe-wide issues experienced by air traffic control. Speaking to the Daily Mirror, they said the air traffic hiccups led to a "knock-on effect" on its services.
A spokesperson for the airline said: "Due to the impact of air traffic control restrictions in place across Europe for much of yesterday, like all airlines operating across European airspace, some of our flights were unable to operate with some knock-on impact on today’s operation.
"We have been doing everything possible to minimise the impact for our customers, providing hotel accommodation and meals as well as a refund or a transfer to an alternative flight and are advising customers they will be reimbursed for expenses should they need to make their own arrangements."