Family describe Bristol Airport chaos as holiday cancelled

Kathrina Dimech, 35 was due to fly out from Bristol Airport to Gran Canaria on Monday, August 28, with her two children and her partner after leaving her home in Penarth at 9.30am in time for her 2pm flight.

Upon arrival to Bristol Airport at noon, it seemed all was as expected but as the lobby filled with other people, she sensed something was not right.

She said: “We put our bags through security as normal, and then an hour after that we noticed the lobby was filling up with loads of people and I got the vibe something wasn’t right.

Katrina Dimech (R) with her partner Richard, far left, her son Oliver and father Anthony (R) and daughter Ava (Image: Katrina Dimech)

“Our flight was delayed an hour by that point which wasn’t a big deal, and then I saw EasyJet starting to cancel loads of flights and got worried.

“Then it was total chaos with no seats at all and people sat on the floor and our flight continued to become delayed after the issue with air traffic control.”

Ms Dimech was told at 4pm her flight would go ahead, despite already having a two-hour delay but to her horror Jet 2 cancelled her whole holiday.

Having been delayed for nearly seven hours, Ms Dimech and her family, including her dad Anthony who was also going on the trip, were only given £10 each to spend in the airport on food or other needs, despite having already spent a lot of money.

Her husband Richard Todd and son Oliver Ryall-Demich fed up of waiting for an update at Bristol Airport (Image: Katrina Demich)

The family had become caught up in the fall out from a UK air traffic control failure, which meant flight plans had to be input manually by controllers on Monday, with holidaymakers paying the price in the form of delays and cancellations.

The mum of two, to Oliver Ryall-Dimech, ten, and Ava Todd-Dimech, one, said it was a special holiday as it was to be her daughter's first time abroad and the only break the family could have.

She added: “I work hard seven days a week, sometimes weeks on end with no break and so does my father, this trip was supposed to be a much-needed respite to spend quality time with my family.

“We waited nine hours in the airport, with loads of people crying their eyes out as they had been drinking in the airport most of the day and couldn’t drive home.

“I am also shocked about how we were treated by Jet 2, They gave us a £10 voucher each, but obviously food and drink in an airport is expensive."

She also told of her disappointment in Jet2 refusing to provide her with milk for her 18-month-old daughter.

18 month old daughter Ava Todd-Dimech fast asleep as chaos unfolded around her (Image: Katrina Dimech)

“My daughter was due to go to bed at 6.30pm, so I went to Jet 2 and asked them for milk, but they dismissed me and told me to buy it from Starbucks.

“I was already out of pocket buying food and drink and other things to keep the children entertained I shouldn’t have had to shell out more money it was awful.”

The family arrived home at midnight, having left Bristol Airport at 11pm and is now put off from booking another holiday abroad after their recent experience.

She added: “I never have time off work and had to push a lot of things around to go on this holiday in the first place, and I am not able to re-book a holiday now.

“We are already upset and deflated we just don’t have faith that it wont happen again, so we have just decided to forget about it.”

Jet 2 flights were cancelled at Bristol Airport, along with Katrina Demich's full holiday (Image: Archive)

A spokesperson for Jet2 said: "We understand Ms Dimech’s holiday was unfortunately cancelled as a result of the significant disruption caused by the technical fault that affected the UK’s National Air Traffic Services this week.

"Although events such as this are completely outside of our control, our total focus is on looking after our customers, with our teams working around the clock to provide this.

"We have been contacting all affected customers to let them know personally, and they will of course receive a full refund.

"In addition, we have added many extra flights on top of our scheduled programme, in order to bring customers home who were disrupted earlier in the week and will continue to support our customers spread across many airports in Europe."