Snow chaos leaves airport passengers stranded among “people spread out on the floor” | UK news
Passengers were left stranded at airports, sitting on the tarmac or crammed into departure halls as snow wreaked havoc at airports on Sunday and Monday.
Stansted and Gatwick airports were both forced to close runways on Sunday due to bad weather, with many flights affected at airports across the country until Monday.
James Brookbank’s three children, aged 8, 7 and 3, littered the floor of Brussels Airport for the night after their flight from Helsinki to Stansted was diverted after an initial four-hour delay.
Brookbank told Sky News: “We’re obviously not as good as they are in Finland with the snow.”
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He said they landed in Brussels at around 3am with “no one from Ryanair, no vouchers, no communication”.
“[We were] just defending ourselves, kids, people of all ages on the floor.”
Thirteen hours after they were due to leave Helsinki, he said they were queuing up for a Stansted flight but didn’t know when it would take off.
“It’s shocking,” he said.
“Children must sleep on the floor, the shameful one will not cover it.”
Gemma Craggs said she was “shocked at how much we were left to fend for ourselves” after her Emirates flight from Gatwick to Dubai was canceled on Sunday night.
The Londoner was due to fly to Mauritius for his honeymoon – the trip has already been postponed after COVID delayed his wedding by two years.
He said he “totally appreciates the snow situation” but said the communication from the airline was “incredibly poor”.
They were only told that the flight had been canceled three hours after the scheduled take-off at 20:20, he said, by which time the shops had closed so they could not get food, the trains had stopped running and all the airport hotels were booked.
They had to go back through passport control and find their suitcase among all the luggage from the canceled flights on Sunday before getting an Uber back home, ready to try again on the same flight on Monday.
There were big lines, including “people with little kids who were just crying,” and she said she didn’t know what people who don’t live nearby would do because there was nothing for them.
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Sussex man Derek Hills was forced to pay £300 for a taxi after his easyJet flight from Milan to Gatwick was diverted to Bristol. He said that after nearly three hours at the airport, “hundreds of frustrated passengers” were “told to go home themselves and demand their money back”.
He said: “I’m lucky to have a job that allows me to do that, a lot of others didn’t.”
Hills offered seats to two other people, including one cabin crew member from another airline who was “visibly upset and said he was scared” because he had no means of getting to Gatwick.
He added: “I finally got home at 4:30 this morning, 300 pounds lighter, very tired and now a long day at work.”
An EasyJet spokesman said: “We did everything we could to minimize disruption to our customers and have been advised that they will be reimbursed for their onward journey and any other expenses, including accommodation and meals.
“The safety and well-being of our customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority and although this is beyond our control, we would like to apologize to our customers for any inconvenience caused by the weather.”
A Ryanair spokesman said “affected passengers have been notified and advised of their options” after flights disrupted by the severe weather, and people planning to fly on Monday were advised to check the Ryanair website or app for updates before leaving for the airport.
They added: “As snowy weather continues across the UK, our teams are working hard to minimize disruption to customers.
“We sincerely apologize for these disruptions caused by weather beyond our control.”
Emirates has been contacted for comment.