Stranded holidaymakers hit out at ‘disgusting’ service after Gatwick suspended all flights

Stranded holidaymakers have hit out at the ‘disgusting’ service after Gatwick Airport suspended all flights yesterday afternoon. 

Passengers faced massive delays, last-minute diversions to other London airports and missed connections after a Boeing 777 British Airways flight had to make an emergency stop on the runway due to ‘having hot brakes’.

This sparked chaos for thousands of Brits hoping to kick summer off with a holiday as any flights due to take off or land at the airport were temporarily suspended. 

One passenger told MailOnline of the ‘terrible and extremely poor service’ their elderly parents experienced after they became stranded in Santorini. 

Their parents had a flight home from the Greek island at 1.30pm but it was eventually cancelled at 8pm.

They added: ‘They were put up overnight at a basic hotel and forced to attend the airport this morning at 10.15am despite their flight not due to take off until 9.00pm local time and having no availability on an earlier flight meaning they have spent almost 2 days at the airport. 

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‘The flight they are due to fly on has further been delayed to 11pm with no actual confirmation it will take off.’

They claimed: ‘Utterly disgusting and appalling customer service with extremely poor communication minimal information given, yesterday they were told it was a technical fault with the aircraft and this morning it was still the same despite having ample time to sort this and other flights departing before them.

‘They have no cash on them so are relying on the minimal vouchers that easyJet are providing.’ 

Others have had special occasions impacted by the flight cancellations.  

Trish and Oliver McShane had their flight for their son’s 40th birthday celebration trip cancelled with only 15 minutes notice.

They said: ‘We had our flight from Belfast to London Gatwick cancelled with 15 minutes notice today, we were going to celebrate our son’s 40th birthday, no alternative flights available except fly to either Southampton or Manchester, my husband is 82 years old and has special assistance, a sad weekend for the family.’

A London Gatwick spokesperson said: ‘The main runway was closed for 50 minutes yesterday (28 June) due to a departing aircraft having hot brakes. Safety is our top priority and London Gatwick’s dedicated airport fire service swiftly attended to support the aircraft. The runway is now open and operating as normal.

‘Yesterday 16 flights were diverted and 23 flights were cancelled and there were a number of delays due to the knock-on impact.

‘Today we continue to work with our airlines and other airport partners to minimise disruption. There have been some cancellations due to European weather and the knock on impact of yesterday’s runway closure. Passengers should contact their airlines directly for the latest flight information.’

An easyJet spokesperson said:  ‘Like all airlines operating across European airspace easyJet’s flying programme has experienced some disruption yesterday, June 28, due to weather and ATC delays.

‘Due to the runway closure at Gatwick Airport some flights were affected with six inbound flights required to divert to other London airports. While the runway was then reopened, flow restrictions were put in place which unfortunately resulted in some cancellations to the programme to and from Gatwick yesterday afternoon.

‘We did everything possible to minimise the impact for our customers whose flights were affected, providing hotel accommodation and meals as well as a refund or a transfer to an alternative flight and advised customers they will be reimbursed for expenses where they made their own arrangements.

‘The safety and wellbeing of our customers is our highest priority and while this was outside of our control, we are sorry for the inconvenience caused.’

A British Airways spokesperson said: ‘The safety of our customers and crew is always our priority, and we’ve apologised for the inconvenience caused following an aborted take-off at Gatwick Airport.’

They previously said: ‘Our pilots took the precautionary decision to cancel take-off due to a technical issue.

‘Safety is always our top priority and we apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused.’

MailOnline has contacted Easyjet for comment. 

It marks yet another hiccup this week for families trying to get away for the summer.

Families flying from Birmingham Airport faced long queues for security with one passenger describing it as a ‘health and safety disaster’. 

Travellers using the airport have faced waits of up to several hours to get through the terminal in recent weeks following the opening of a £60million security hall. 

The new area will eventually allow passengers to leave liquids up to two litres and large electrical items in cabin luggage while they go through security, but fresh government restrictions mean passengers are still only limited to 100ml bottles.

One video filmed earlier this week showed a long queue of cars waiting to get into the drop-off area today.  Witness Olly Carruthers said it was ‘chaos’ with the zone ‘completely broken and backing up’.

Another traveller said he had waited for more than an hour by 5.30am this morning and had still not reached the lifts to pass security – with 1,000 people in the queue.

The airport – which also denied the figure of 1,000 people in the queue – told how staff removed 0.8 tonnes of liquids, pastes and gels in containers which were over the 100ml hand luggage limit going through security between 3.30am and 7am.