Islanders stranded from Spain to Scotland as air-traffic-control fault continues to affect flights

Rob and Erin Turner on a train as they try to find their way home. (36498289)

DOZENS of Islanders remained stranded at airports across Europe yesterday as knock-on effects from a ‘very rare’ nationwide air-traffic-control failure continued to disrupt flights.

A technical issue on Monday afternoon with the automatic data handling of National Air Traffic Services resulted in the cancellation of 27% of all flights, which had been due to depart and arrive from UK airports, while many more were delayed.

While NATS announced several hours later that it had resolved the issue, airlines and airports said that the disruption could last for days.

A number of Islanders were yesterday stuck at airports from Birmingham to Valencia, with many flights for this week already fully booked.

Ports of Jersey confirmed that four flights out of Jersey Airport had been cancelled yesterday, in addition to Monday’s flights to and from London Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Liverpool.

Cancellations at Glasgow Airport (36498291)

Ports and airlines are reminding passengers to check the latest flight information before heading to the Airport.

Rob and Erin Turner, who had spent the weekend at a wedding, were due to fly with easyJet from Edinburgh on Monday but after six hours at the gate, they discovered the flight had been cancelled, and no further information was provided by the airline.

Mr Turner described seeing ‘a queue of people going out of the terminal building and down the road’.

He said: ‘We saw people crying, others arguing with helpless airport staff, a lot of anger and confusion.’

With almost no available flights from Scotland or northern England until Thursday, the couple now hopes to fly from Birmingham on Wednesday.

‘But we are being warned that the knock-on effects to flights could carry on for days and there is no guarantee that we will get home on Wednesday either,’ said Mr Turner.

He added: ‘The costs are racking up and there are questions over whether the airlines will pay out refunds for the issues resulting from the air-traffic-control technical issue and also whether our travel insurance will cover us for hundreds of pounds worth of hotels, trains and taxis.’

The couple said they may have to do the same as a group of friends, who hired a car and drove nine hours overnight to Poole to catch the ferry.

JEP reporter James Jeune, who was due to travel back from Valencia on Monday afternoon, said it was ‘chaos’ in the departures hall.

James Jeune (white T-shirt) waits in a queue in Valencia Airport (Picture: Isabel Pons) (36498293)

He added: ‘I don’t think anyone really knew how to handle it. They boarded us and then said that UK air traffic had gone down but that they would keep us on the plane in the hope that once it was fixed, we could get going pretty quickly.

‘Obviously that didn’t happen but by the time all the flights were being cancelled, they were struggling to get someone to come to let us back through the gate.

‘We stayed on the plane for about three hours before finally being able to get off and pass through border control again.

‘The airport was even more mayhem, with flocks of confused tourists rushing around trying to figure out how to get home. I’ve had to spend hundreds of pounds rebooking flights home, money which I hope I will be able to claim back.’

Jersey Airport director Robin MacRae said: ‘[The] issue with UK air traffic control is thankfully a very rare event but we appreciate how disruptive it is for passengers.

‘During the rest of this week, it is expected that many flights departing Jersey Airport will be full and potentially subject to changes as airlines catch up following delays and cancellations caused by the air traffic network issues in the UK.’

An easyJet spokesperson said that the majority of its flights were now operating ‘as planned’ but that some services had been cancelled.

‘We notified customers in advance, providing them with options to transfer their flight for free or receive a refund to help them rearrange their plans.

‘While this is outside our control, we apologise for the difficulty this has caused for our customers and we remain focused on doing all possible to assist and repatriate them as soon as possible at this very busy time of year,’ the spokesperson added.

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