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

It should have taken just a few hours for Mark and Caroline Gittins to fly from Gatwick Airport to Madeira to celebrate his 60th birthday.

But instead, the couple spent 15 hours trying to reach their destination, only to end up back where they started.

Because of strong winds, their EasyJet flight last Sunday was diverted to Tenerife. After two hours there, passengers were flown back to Gatwick.

EasyJet apologised but said the safety of customers and crew is its priority.

Mr Gittins, who lives in Finchampstead in Berkshire, told the BBC the whole experience had been "hard to believe".

"To spend fifteen hours travelling, when the destination is actually your own home, that's totally surreal and we're in shock," he said. "If someone had said that was going to be the outcome, we never would've believed it."

The Gittins arrived at Gatwick at 3:40am on Sunday morning to check in. Their flight was delayed by about an hour, but before long they were on their way.

Early into the flight, passengers were told there were strong winds over Madeira, but the captain said he was hopeful they would subside.

But a few hours later, it was announced that the plane was being diverted to Tenerife because of the weather conditions.

"We weren't too concerned, we were told this is not massively unusual, and that we'll probably sit on the ground at Tenerife South airport for a few hours before heading on to Madeira," Mr Gittins said.

"But after 30 minutes, the captain came back on and said: 'I'm sorry, it's not good news.' That's when it all fell apart."

The plane took off again, but instead of Madeira, this time it was headed back to Gatwick, where it arrived at 6pm that day.

Mr Gittins says he has "a major problem" with the way EasyJet treated them on the way back to the UK.

"The biggest problem was all the false promises from the airline," he says.

"On the flight back, the captain and air stewards kept reassuring us, saying they would sort out alternative flights, accommodation, food vouchers, and that they would get us back to Madeira, but none of that happened. They just disembarked us at Gatwick, with no information."

The couple said they are being refunded by Tui, the travel firm with which they had booked their holiday, and have managed to book another last minute trip to France to celebrate Mr Gittins' birthday.

However, they said they feel "completely abandoned" by EasyJet.

"I don't think they should raise people's expectations like that, and give you all this false hope they're going to get you back out to your destination the next day," Mr Gittins said.

An EasyJet spokesperson said: "The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is EasyJet's highest priority and our crew did all possible to minimise the impact of the disruption for customers, providing complimentary refreshments onboard."

EasyJet said that upon arrival at Gatwick on Sunday evening, customers were informed of their options to rebook or receive a refund along with information on arranging hotel accommodation and meals where required.

The spokesperson added: "We are sorry to hear that this was not passed on to [the Gittins]. Our team will be contacting the customers to apologise for their experience and offer any further assistance they may need.

"While this was outside of our control, we would like to apologise to all customers for the inconvenience caused as a result of the weather."

While weather conditions were to blame for the problems on the Gittins' journey, thousands of other UK travellers have been affected by disruption in recent weeks.

Airports and airlines, which cut jobs during Covid lockdowns, have struggled to recruit staff as demand for holidays has returned. The UK is about to enter the key summer holiday season as schools begin to break up.

The airport is limiting the number of passengers who can depart each day over the peak summer months to 100,000, 4,000 fewer than currently scheduled.

But its move looks set to cause further aggravation for travellers during what has already become a pretty miserable summer.