EASYJET customers were left “crying” in “complete chaos” after being left stranded on a Portuguese island.
Lisa Owen and her husband Kevin were left trapped in Madeira, Portugal on Tuesday after high winds cancelled their flight home to London Gatwick.
Families were left “crying” and “arguing with staff” after a lack of communication from the airline company, leaving passengers in “complete chaos”.
Travelers were posed with waiting a further three days until Friday for a chance to fly home but weren’t even guaranteed a space onboard the flight.
With the next flight after that not until Monday, 50-year-old Lisa was unwilling to take the risk and hunted for other options.
After being placed in a hotel for the night by travel agents TUI, Lisa from Blackfordby, Leicestershire, instead opted for a flight to Manchester the following day.
Forking out an additional £400 to get back to the UK, the couple were then tasked with collecting their car from Gatwick airport, costing them a further £100 in fuel.
Lisa shared the ordeal to Facebook on Friday, slamming EasyJet for their lack of communication.
She wrote: “Our plane from Madeira was cancelled on 31st May due to ‘windy weather’ that I can deal with.
“What I can’t deal with is the complete lack of communication and lack of help afterwards.
“We booked with TUI but our flights were with EasyJet. EasyJet told us to contact TUI.
“I could not get hold of anyone and nobody knew what to do, where to go or who to contact.
“Passengers were crying or arguing with staff, it was complete chaos.
“Luckily I had the number of a TUI rep from hotel as he had cancelled one of our excursions.
“He blamed EasyJet but did get us a hotel for the night but said the next flight home was Friday 3rd June and if we did not get that then it would be the 6th of June.
“We took the Friday flight that wasn’t guaranteed because when we looked for other flights they were ridiculous prices.
“Anyway after we calmed down we went to the hotel the TUI rep got for us which was only for one night, we was going to be there for three anyway long story short we found a Ryanair flight for the next day as couldn’t risk waiting for a flight that might not happen and be left there till the 6th June.
“We have work commitments and a pet pooch.
“It’s cost us nearly £500 to get home, we had to get flight to Manchester as no flight to Gatwick which is where we took off from and our car was parked, so had to get down to London afterwards to pick our car up which cost us nearly another £100.
“Although it was due to weather conditions they can’t seriously expect people to be stranded there for days with no compensation surely so my question is what are the chances of us getting that flight money back.
“I filled a compensation form in but I think they are going to put it down to Mother Nature.”
Speaking today Lisa said: “We got to the airport and were getting ready to go home but then there was a delay.
“The plane could not land because of wind and had to divert back to Gatwick which we understood, you don’t want to go up if it is not safe.
“We started to talk to people and realised that there did not seem to be a plan as there were no reps from any company.
“Eventually I found a number and we were told by a rep there was a flight leaving on Friday otherwise it would be the 6th of June but we can’t miss work that long.
“There was just the ground staff who were just doing their jobs.
“We went back to our hotel and I thought I’ll just have one look again to see if I can find anything to get us home.
“I found the Ryanair flight and just thought we can get that because we needed to get home for work and to collect our dog too.
“The flight only got us back to Manchester but we then got ourselves down to Gatwick, the flights we were being offered where quotes as £900 which was ludicrous.
“We were on edge and stressed, it is not how you want to end your holiday worrying about getting back home.
“People were crying and families had little ones who were upset and did not understand what was going on.”
Speaking today an EasyJet spokesperon said: “Ms Owen’s flight from Funchal to London Gatwick on 31 May was unfortunately cancelled due to adverse weather conditions in Funchal.
“We contacted customers via their details provided at time of booking with information on the flight and options available, including how to book onto an alternative flight and arrange hotel accommodation.
“Ms Owen booked her flights through a third party travel agent and we ask third parties to ensure they pass on any important information to their customers, so we are sorry to hear that this did not reach Ms Owen. Our team will be reaching out to Mrs Owen to apologise for their experience and support with processing her expenses.
“While this was outside of our control, we are very sorry for the inconvenience caused by the cancellation. The safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew is our highest priority.”
