A British couple are stranded in Montenegro after their easyJet flight back to Gatwick Airport was axed.
Nathan Barnes, 31, and their 30-year-old wife Rachel were due to return from the popular tourist destination on Thursday morning but their flight was one of multiple cancelled by the budget airline at short notice. They received the crushing news despite checking in at Tivat Airport in the southwest of the country.
Speaking exclusively to the Mirror, Nathan said: "It's been the most stressful holiday of our life. We were all left without food or water, no easyJet reps or updated information.
"We had a flight booked to fly back to Gatwick with easyJet at Tivat Airport in Montenegro at 11am, we turned up early as the airport is extremely busy and can't cope with everyone there. We arrived at 8am and checked in as usual. We were waiting in the departure lounge but the flight was delayed many times, we were informed about midday that a bird strike on the plane had caused damage that needed to be inspected but would soon be resolved.
Several elderly people were on the flight and had to wait hours for a transfer to a hotel (Nathan Barnes)"Around 2pm or 3pm, we were told by the pilot himself that the aircraft could not fly and they are waiting on an engineer or expert to fly over for Milan and that we will have to stay the night and fly in the morning if the aircraft is fixed. We then had to go back through security and baggage collection and wait in the terminal for an update of a coach and accommodation for 170 people. We were left for hours with no update or help from airport or easyJet staff."
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Nathan says elderly people were among the group which had to wait for several hours at the airport. By which time, he and Rachel decided to book an alternative flight to Gatwick from nearby Podrica Airport, found and paid for a hotel themselves and spent money on taxis. But this flight, with another airline, was cancelled this morning and the £600 Nathan and Rachel had forked out went to waste.
Nathan continued: "All the money we spent - over £600 on a motel, taxi and new flights - was wasted and then we had a message from easyJet, saying our rescheduled flight was now at 6pm today. We got a taxi back to Tivat which was another £100 euros (£84 approximately) and a one-hour-and-thirty-minute drive back to the original airport to get the rescheduled flight at 6pm.
"Many elderly people have been stuck waiting for hours, easyJet eventually got people in hotels but not until around 7pm, which meant they had been in the airport for 11 hours until they were seen to.
"There was a group of pensioners in their 60s, 70s and 80s just left to fend for themselves for hours. I hear they were eventually taken to a hotel, but that might have been from their tour operator, not easyJet.
"One elderly person was meant to have eye surgery, which has now been cancelled due to the flight delay. Luckily, we also had Friday off work, but many other people needed to get back yesterday. I just hope we can get home today.
"We also heard that the original flight which was damaged by bird strike had already started boarding passengers and one of them noticed the damage, not the flight crew."
Regarding Nathan and Rachel's experience, an easyJet spokesman told us: "A easyJet can confirm that flight EZY6544 from Tivat to London Gatwick on 27 June was overnight delayed to 28 June due a to bird strike, which meant the original aircraft was unable to operate.
"We operate our fleet in strict compliance with regulations and have procedures which ensures any issues are picked up. We did everything possible to minimise the impact of the delay, providing hotel accommodation and meals for those who required them and we would like to apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused. The safety of its passengers and crew is easyJet's highest priority."
Further flights to and from the UK were cancelled, though the budget airline said this was due to "traffic control restrictions" across Europe.
It said: "Due to the impact of air traffic control restrictions in place across Europe for much of yesterday, like all airlines operating across European airspace, some of our flights were unable to operate with some knock-on impact on today’s operation.
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"We have been doing everything possible to minimise the impact for our customers, providing hotel accommodation and meals as well as a refund or a transfer to an alternative flight and are advising customers they will be reimbursed for expenses should they need to make their own arrangements."
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