Summer holiday: ‘We spent 15 hours on a flight to nowhere’

• An EasyJet flight from Gatwick to Madeira was diverted to Tenerife due to bad weather.
• The couple spent 15 hours attempting to get there, and were eventually flown back to the UK.
• The passengers were given information on how to arrange hotel accommodations and food.

Mark and Caroline Gittins should have been able to fly to Madeira from Gatwick Airport in a short amount of time to honour his 60th birthday.

But instead of getting where they were going, the couple spent 15 hours attempting to get there.

Their EasyJet flight last Sunday was diverted to Tenerife due to heavy winds. The passengers were flown back to Gatwick after spending two hours there.

Although EasyJet expressed regret, it insisted that customer and worker safety came first.

The entire encounter, according to Mr. Gittins, who resides in Finchampstead, Berkshire, was “impossible to believe,” he told the BBC.

In shock, he added, “It’s utterly weird to spend fifteen hours travelling when the destination is actually your own home.” “We would never have believed it if someone had told us that was going to be the result.”

On Sunday morning at 3:40am, the Gittins arrived at Gatwick to make their check-in. Even though their flight was nearly an hour late, they soon made it to their destination.

Early on in the trip, the pilot informed the passengers that there were severe gusts above Madeira, but expressed optimism that they would abate.

A few hours later, however, it was revealed that the flight had been diverted to Tenerife due to weather concerns.

We weren’t really concerned because we had been informed that this wasn’t particularly unusual and that we would likely spend a few hours at the airport in Tenerife South before continuing on to Madeira, according to Mr. Gittins.

“However, the captain returned after 30 minutes and announced, “I’m sorry, it’s not good news. Then everything started to fall apart.

Once more, the jet took off, but this time it was bound back to Gatwick, where it arrived that day at 6 o’clock.

Also Read

Flights will be more expensive, says IATA’s Willie Walsh

An airline executive has predicted that the cost of flying will "without...

On the journey back to the UK, Mr. Gittins claims EasyJet treated them porly, and he has “a serious problem” with it.

He claims that the airline’s many unfulfilled promises were the main issue.

“On the journey back, the captain and air hostesses continued assuring us that they would arrange other flights, lodging, food coupons, and that they would bring us back to Madeira, but nothing of the sort transpired. We were simply disembarked at Gatwick without any information.

The pair said that Tui, the travel agency they used to reserve their vacation, is refunding them, and they were able to get another last-minute trip to France to honour Mr. Gittins’ birthday.

However, they claimed that EasyJet has “totally abandoned” them.

Mr. Gittins stated, “I don’t think they should set people up with such unrealistic expectations and give you all this false optimism that they’re going to bring you back out to your destination the next day.

The safety and wellness of both the crew and the passengers are EasyJet’s top priorities, and the crew did everything they could to lessen the inconvenience for the passengers by offering free drinks onboard.

According to EasyJet, passengers were given information on how to arrange hotel accommodations and food, as well as the chance to rebook or receive a refund, when they arrived at Gatwick on Sunday evening.

“We are sad to hear that this was not passed on to [the Gittins],” the spokeswoman continued. Our team will get in touch with the clients to express regret for their experience and provide any additional help they might require.

We would like to apologise to all customers for the inconvenience caused by the weather, even though it was out of our control.

While the Gittins’ issues on their trip were caused by the weather, thousands of other UK travellers have been inconvenienced recently.

As demand for vacations has increased, airports and airlines that slashed employees during Covid lockdowns have found it difficult to fill open positions. As the school year comes to an end, the UK is set to enter the crucial summer vacation period.

As the UK’s busiest airport struggles to keep up with the uptick in air travel, Heathrow Airport instructed airlines on Tuesday to cease selling summer tickets.

Over the busiest summer months, the airport will cap the number of passengers who can depart each day to 100,000, which is 4,000 fewer than originally planned.

Heathrow is not the only airport to impose limitations. Gatwick restricted the number of daily flights a few weeks ago.

However, their decision appears to make travelling much more difficult during what has already turned out to be a rather unpleasant summer.

Also Read

WATCH: Flight attendant grabs attention with his funny demonstration

A flight attendant made passengers laugh. He did some funny pre-flight demonstrations....