Holidaymakers stuck in travel hell as UK flights grounded due to air traffic control fault

Sign up to Simon Calder’s free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calder’s Travel email Get Simon Calder’s Travel email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. While they were finally able to book replacement flights for 6:15pm on Tuesday, these were more expensive and no voucher codes were available, while the airline’s online chat service was unavailable, Ms Fairbrass said, adding: “ hope Easyjet will play fair with us.” Gemma Breslaw, her husband and their two children – aged four and five – had been told they were facing “awful” delays of 12 hours at the airport in Rome, where they witnessed “lots of angry people shouting at the staff”, before their flight was ultimately cancelled. Describing British Airway’s “lack of communication” as “disgraceful”, Ms Colley said the family were considering driving home from Turkey – before eventually managing to find a connecting flight to Istanbul at 6am on Tuesday, and another to the UK departing some 12 hours later. In a “happy travel story”, she later announced that she was “boarded and heading home”, adding: “We are very lucky.” However, a less optimistic passenger on Logan’s flight – who said they had been planning “exotic rail journeys across Europe to get us back to the UK” while stuck in the terminal – simultaneously told The Independent: “Don’t hold your breath” for take-off. open image in gallery Travellers wait near the British Airways check-in area at Heathrow Airport While he feared missed work hours on Tuesday and an unscheduled overnight stay at Heathrow lay ahead, Mr Miller praised the pilot for keeping passengers well updated, and sounded relatively unperturbed by the wait and harrowing holiday encounter as he joked: “Everyone’s jovial, the air con’s on.” Zach O’Donnell, who found himself stuck on in “limbo” on an EasyJet plane travelling from Barcelona to Bristol, said : “ funniest thing is that I was meant to fly home last night but instead spent £209 to change my flight to today so that I could go to the club again.